My Xmas Cake 2011
Created | Updated Dec 24, 2011
Traditional Christmas cake is a rich dark fruit cake covered with
marzipan and white icing. If you have the time, money, energy and
cooking skills to make a home made cake, that will be the nicest cake to eat.
If you can't or won't make your own Christmas cake, and your options
are doing without a cake altogether or eating a shop bought cake, this
is an alternative to consider.
Shop bought cakes do not taste as nice as home made cakes, they are
rather dry and seem stale compared to the home cakes. But it is mostly
the icing and marzipan that spoil a Christmas cake rather than the cake
itself.
Rich fruit cake of all the cakes is designed to be kept quite a while.
Traditionally a wedding cake would have the top layer saved for the
christening a year later. So the fruit cake itself is not going to be stale just by staying on shop shelves for a few months.
Ingredients to buy
An uniced fruit cake
A packet of ready prepared marzipan
A packet of icing sugar
Optional - alcholic spirit e.g. brandy, rum, whisky, whiskey
Equipment needed
A spoon
A tupperware box big enough for the cake (or can use empty ice cream
boxes or celebration chocolate boxes)
A butter knife, this is a blunt bladed knife
A Rolling pin (or can use a bottle or anything rolling pin shaped)
Scissors to open the cake and marzipan packets.
A sharp knife
Optional - Cake Tin
Buy an uniced dark fruit cake. Depending on the budget available, you can buy a luxury cake or get the supermarket budget fruit cake blocks
and put a few together. A square or oblong cake is much easier to cut.
"Feed" the fruit cake with your favourite alcoholic spirit e.g. brandy,
rum, whisky, whiskey by pouring a couple of spoonfuls over the cake
each day for about a week. Keep the cake in a tupperware box. This step is optional if you don't drink alcohol or can't afford it this year.
Buy a block of ready prepared marzipan. This is available from the
home baking aisle in supermarkets. Roll the marzipan out to the size of
the cake and place the marzipan on top of the cake.
Buy a packet of icing sugar. Mix icing sugar with water to make a paste
and spread over the marzipan with a butter knife.
Return the cake to the tupperware box or use a cake tin if you prefer
until ready to eat the cake. Cut a slice of cake from the middle with a sharp knife, put the two remaining part-halfs of cake together and return the cake to the box.
marzipan and white icing. If you have the time, money, energy and
cooking skills to make a home made cake, that will be the nicest cake to eat.
If you can't or won't make your own Christmas cake, and your options
are doing without a cake altogether or eating a shop bought cake, this
is an alternative to consider.
Shop bought cakes do not taste as nice as home made cakes, they are
rather dry and seem stale compared to the home cakes. But it is mostly
the icing and marzipan that spoil a Christmas cake rather than the cake
itself.
Rich fruit cake of all the cakes is designed to be kept quite a while.
Traditionally a wedding cake would have the top layer saved for the
christening a year later. So the fruit cake itself is not going to be stale just by staying on shop shelves for a few months.
Ingredients to buy
An uniced fruit cake
A packet of ready prepared marzipan
A packet of icing sugar
Optional - alcholic spirit e.g. brandy, rum, whisky, whiskey
Equipment needed
A spoon
A tupperware box big enough for the cake (or can use empty ice cream
boxes or celebration chocolate boxes)
A butter knife, this is a blunt bladed knife
A Rolling pin (or can use a bottle or anything rolling pin shaped)
Scissors to open the cake and marzipan packets.
A sharp knife
Optional - Cake Tin
Buy an uniced dark fruit cake. Depending on the budget available, you can buy a luxury cake or get the supermarket budget fruit cake blocks
and put a few together. A square or oblong cake is much easier to cut.
"Feed" the fruit cake with your favourite alcoholic spirit e.g. brandy,
rum, whisky, whiskey by pouring a couple of spoonfuls over the cake
each day for about a week. Keep the cake in a tupperware box. This step is optional if you don't drink alcohol or can't afford it this year.
Buy a block of ready prepared marzipan. This is available from the
home baking aisle in supermarkets. Roll the marzipan out to the size of
the cake and place the marzipan on top of the cake.
Buy a packet of icing sugar. Mix icing sugar with water to make a paste
and spread over the marzipan with a butter knife.
Return the cake to the tupperware box or use a cake tin if you prefer
until ready to eat the cake. Cut a slice of cake from the middle with a sharp knife, put the two remaining part-halfs of cake together and return the cake to the box.
