Traditional Irish Christmas Cake Food

TRADITIONAL IRISH CHRISTMAS CAKE

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven 165 degrees Celsius/325 f. HOW TO PREPARE YOUR BAKING TIN. First line the base and sides with brown paper and then with grease proof paper. Wrap the outside of the tin with a double layer of brown paper which you can tie with string. Cut an extra circle or square of grease proof paper, same as the base, that you can put on top of the cake after an hour in the oven to prevent the top burning.
• 2. Put the first nine ingredients in a bowl.Wash the cherries, quarter or halve (whichever you prefer). Blanch the almonds in boiling water for 1-2 mins, rub off the skins and chop finely.(you can buy almonds already blanched). Add the Whiskey, mix and leave to marinate overnight.
• 3. Cream the butter, add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Lightly beat the eggs, add to mix gradually, beating well between each addition. Mix the spice with the flour and stir in gently but thoroughly. Add the grated apple to your fruit mix and stir into flour mixture. Mix well but gently. (Do not beat the mix anymore, it will toughen the cake).
• 4. Put the mixture into the prepared tin. Make a slight hollow in the center. Dip your hand in water and pat over the surface, this helps to make the top smooth when it's baked. Put in the preheated oven, reduce temp to 150 degrees after 1 hour. Bake for a further 3-3 1/2 hours. Test in center, skewer should come out completely clean. Pour a little whiskey over the cake and let cool on the tin.
• 5. NEXT day remove from tin. Do not remove the lining paper, but wrap in another layer of grease proof paper and outside that a layer of alluminum foil.
• 6. Once a week, pour a good shot of whiskey over the cake, having made a few holes with a toothpick. Alternate top and bottom. I put labels on my cake with the date, each time checking off whether I did the top or bottom. This also helps when you're ready for the marzipan, start with the oldest cake. I had baked all the cakes over a two week period.

IRISH APPLE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
• Make the streusel topping: In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, granulated sugar and salt. Next, rub in the cold butter until fully incorporated and you've reached the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. Set aside in the fridge while you make the cake.
• Make the cake: Cream the butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, then beat in the eggs one at a time. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a rubber spatula along with the milk. Once the batter has formed, transfer it to the prepared pan and lay on the sliced apples, making sure they are arranged in one even layer. Cover the apples with all the streusel topping.
• Bake the cake until the top is golden brown and crisp, 60 to 70 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before turning out of the pan onto a rack. When ready to serve, dust the cake with confectioners' sugar.

IRISH TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS CAKE

Steps:

• 1. Preheat your oven to 140 c. DON'T FORGET TO SOAK THE FRUIT THE NIGHT BEFORE FOR LEAST 12 HOURS...
• 2. Prepare a 9 inch round cake tin, cut out 2 dish of grease-proof paper the same size as cake tin, and one long rectangle of grease-poof paper that is 6 cm wider that the height of cake tin and slightly longer than the circumference of the tin. Fold over a depth of 3 cm of one of the long edges of the rectangle of grease-poof paper and make diagonal cut into it all the way along the length. Grease the inside of your cake tin with butter and put in one of the disks of grease-poof paper . Then grease the top of the disk and put in the long grease-poof paper rectangle around the inside of the cake tin, with the cut flaps lying on the bottom of the tin. Grease the inside of the grease-poof paper rectangle and put the last disk into tin, sandwiching the "feet" of the upright grease-proof paper rectangle. Finally grease the top of that disk (so your cake won't stick). Tie a double band of brown paper around the outside of your cake tin with string so prevent the cake burning while baking in oven for 3 hours.
• 3. In large bowl place all your fruit, grated apples, nutmeg, mixed spice, cinnamon, chopped almonds, grated lemon rind and 1 cup of Jameson and not forgetting half bottle of Guinness. Mix thoroughly and cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave overnight. Next day cream the butter and sugar together until light and fully. Add beaten eggs and sieved flour and beat until well mixed . mix in soaked fruit and ground almonds and mix well. Put mixture into prepared tin smooth with back of a spoon leaving a slight hallow in the centre.
• 4. Bake the cake for 3 hours. Protect the top of cake from over-browning by covering with brown paper for the last 1+ 1/2 hours baking. Check the cake after 2+ half hours with small skewer into centre of cake = when it comes out dry cake is done; but oven temperatures can vary just might need that extra half hour.
• 5. Cool cake in tin until next day,turn out remove the paper. Using a skewer, make about 8 small holes in the cake and pour in some more whiskey just to add some more flavour (well it is an Irish cake).
• 6. Wrap the cake in 2 sheets of grease-proof paper and then cover with a layer of tin foil. Store in an airtight tin or tuber wear in a cool place. Years ago the wee old Irish woman would hide there cakes under the bed so there husband wouldn't break into the Christmas cake after a night on the beer before Christmas.
• 7. TIP= I haven't included icing in this recipe, because my husband likes this cake plain. However, there are so many different types of icing around (e.g. fondant, royal), I'll leave you to choose your own favourite. This cake should be made at least 1 month in advance...