Christmas/Yule Cake (for the Currant Averse)

My husband has always had an issue with currants, sultana, and raisins (or humiliated grapes as he calls the latter). However, I love Christmas cake. Especially homemade Christmas cake. It's rarely worth making a whole fruitcake for me alone, though, and so I developed a recipe to accommodate his dislike of humiliated grapes. Instead, we rely on dried dates, which go a bit more fudgey when cooked than currants and raisins, and have a different texture.

The recipes that formed the foundation this one can be found at the links below.

Classic Christmas Cake by James Martin

Easy Christmas Cake by Sarah Cook

Christmas/Yule Cake (for the Currant Averse)

Ingredients:

1kg mixed dried fruits - we use dried dates, mixed peel, and glacé cherries but you can use whatever type of dried fruit you prefer.

Sherry (or preferred alcohol, or tea/juice if you prefer not to use alcohol) - base recipes call for 150ml, but we soak the fruit in enough to cover the fruit, then use what we drain from the fruit before baking to feed the cake afterwards.

Zest and juice of two oranges - two lemons, limes, or four satsumas can also work.

250g unsalted butter.

250g soft, light brown sugar.

2 tsp vanilla essence.

4 eggs.

200g plain flour.

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground mixed spice.

1 tsp ground cinnamon.

1/4 tsp ground cloves.

You could also add ground or candied ginger or nutmeg depending on your preferences.

200g ground almonds - you can use flaked almonds if you prefer a bit of texture, but we don't.

Method:

1. Place your dried fruit in a large bowl or jar, and cover with the sherry. Place a lid on the jar or clingfilm over the bowl, and leave to soak, mixing or shaking the mixture every two days, especially if the level of the liquid drops below the top of the fruit. 

Some people only let their fruit soak over night. Some do so for six months to a year. Personally, we soaked our fruit for a week, and that was more than enough to ensure the sherry saturated the fuit.

2. Prehead oven to 160°C/140° with fan/gas mark 3.

3. Greese a cake tin, and line it with baking parchment. The parchment at the sides should come up 2.5cm above the top of the cake tin. Also wrap the outside of the tin in parchment, brown paper, or newspaper, and tie in place with string.

4. Drain the dried fruit, keeping the syrupy sherry that's left over to feed the cake with later (if you want to feed it) or simply enjoy the sticky, fruity liqueur you've created! If a bit of sherry is left in with the fruit, that's fine. The original recipes would add it to the batter, but because we soaked the fruit in more sherry initially, it risks making the batter too wet if it's not drained.

5. Add the zest and juice of the oranges (or other citrus fruit) to the dried fruit.

6. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla essence until creamy.

7. Add the four eggs, one at a time, and mix in with the butter and sugar.

8. Sift in the flour, spices, and baking powder a bit at a time, until it is all mixed in with the rest of the cake batter, and add the ground almonds.

9. Add the fruit and juice mixture to the batter, and ensure it's well mixed in.

10. Pour the mixture into the cake tin, and place in the preheated over for one and a half hours. (1.5 hours/1 hour and 30 mins)

11. Turn the oven down to 140°C/120°C with fan/gas mark 1. Cover the cake with a circle of parchment and cook for another two and a half to three hours.  (2.5-3 hours/2 hours and 30 minutes - 3 hours). Make sure to check the cake is ready by inserting a clean skewer from top to bottom, and seeing if it comes out clean or still claggy with raw batter. If the cake needs more time, leave it in the oven until the skewer test shows it's ready. If you have no metal skewers, use a butter knife.

12. Leave the cake to cool, then store in an airtight box. You can feed the cake once a week with your left over sherry, if you want a more boozy cake. To do this, skewer the cake and pour over a little of the sherry. Stop feeding the cake a week before icing it, to ensure the cake is dry.

To Decorate:

1. Cover the cake in a thin layer of rolled out marzipan, stuck down with apricot jam (or your preference), and leave to dry for up to a week.

2. Cover the marzipan in royal icing (the sort that goes hard) and decorate as you prefer.

3. Enjoy your boozy, spiced, and currant-free christmas cake!