Traditional Christmas Cake Recipe
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Cook time: 
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Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • 1 lb dried currants
  • 8 oz. raisins
  • 8 oz. golden raisins
  • 8 oz. diced candied orange peel
  • 3 T brandy (you can use rum, bourbon, or Irish whiskey in place of brandy) plus more for "feeding"
  • 8 oz. butter
  • 8 oz. brown sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 8 oz. flour
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • ½ tsp. allspice
  • 2 oz. pecans, toasted and chopped
  • 1 tsp. molasses
  • grated zest 1 lemon
  • grated zest 1 orange
Instructions
  1. The night before you want to bake the cake, combine the raisins, currants and orange peel and pour the 3 T brandy over it. Toss with your hands, cover with a towel, and leave overnight. (If you skip this step, it's not the end of the world. Just toss them before you add them to the cake).
  2. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
  3. Cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the flour, the spices and the salt and beat until just combined. Finally, fold in the fruit, the molasses the pecans and the zest with a wooden spoon.
  4. Line an 8 inch round springform pan with parchment paper (I cut out a circle for the bottom by tracing, then cut a strip to wrap around the edges) and pour in the batter. Place another circle of parchment paper with a hole cut in the middle (Delia says about the size of a 50p coin, which is roughly the size of a 50 cent coin, but I haven't seen a 50 cent coin since I was a kid, so use some discretion. Bigger than a quarter) directly on top of the batter, then wrap the whole pan in a collar of brown paper (I cut about a 4 inch strip of paper from a grocery bag (I usually use my own bags, but sometimes you need the paper!) tied with kitchen twine.
  5. Bake in the low oven for 4 -4.5 hours, or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan, then poke with skewers and pour some brandy over the top. Soak cheesecloth in more brandy, and wrap the cake thoroughly. Store in a tin for a week or two, "feeding" every few days with more brandy. The character of the cake will change with aging, making it more and more confection like the longer it ages.
Notes
Adapted From Delia Smith
Recipe by The Domestic Front at http://www.thedomesticfront.com/its-fruitcake-weather-buddy/