Making The Christmas Cake

Mums Christmas Cake Recipe   Dear mum made this cake every year on Stir Up Sunday.  It was always stored in fresh greaseproof paper in her special cake tin.    She always marzipanned it on December the 10th to enable the marzipan to dry out so that the marzipan did not bleed into the Royal Icing and always stored in the lid of the tin as a base and the original base was used as the lid, which might sound odd but it was so easy to get in and out of the tin.     The cake was religiously iced on December the 17th to allow the icing to dry out so that the decorations did not bleed into the virgin white icing and the band did not stick to it.    The finale occured on Christmas Eve when I used to help her decorate it with the obligatory Santa, snowman, reindeer and Christmas trees and the beautiful frilly cake band always secured by a sterilized pin. Ingredients 225g/8oz raisins 170g/6oz currants 450g/1lb sultanas 110g/4oz glace cherries, quartered and then cut in half again zest and juice of 1 lemon zest and juice of 1 orange 2 to 6 tablespoons sherry, dark rum, whisky or brandy 225g/8 oz butter at room temperature 225/8oz soft brown sugar 4 large beaten eggs 225g/8 oz plain flour 1/2 teaspoon mixed ground spice 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 80g/3oz flaked almonds   Method 1 Place the raisins, currants, sultanas, glace cherries, lemon an orange zests and juices into a medium sized saucepan. 2 Bring to the boil. 3 Remove from the heat and stir in the alcahol. 4 Cool completely. 5 Oil an 8 inches deep round cake tin with a loose bottom.  6 Line the tin with baking parchment or greaseproof paper. 7 Oil the paper. 8 Wrap brown paper or newspaper and tie with string 9 Purée one third of the fruit and all of the juice in a liquidiser or food processor or use a stick blender. 10 Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk until almost white, soft and very fluffy. 11 Gradually add the beaten eggs a tablespoonful at a time, beating well between additions. (If the cake mixture curdles add a tablespoon of plain flour and then continue as normal).. 12 Add the fruit puree and stir well. 13 Add the fruits and nuts stir well. 14 Sieve the flour and the spices together. 15 Add the flour and spices into the cake. 16 Spoon into the tin and level the surface. 17 Bake at 170 degrees centigrade/gas mark 3 for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until the skewer when placed into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 18 Cool in the tin on a wire cooling rack. 19 When completely cool remove the old greaseproof/baking parchment paper and replace with new and store in an airtight tin in a cool place, but not in the fridge.   Serves 15 to 20 quite generously

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