Today I made my first ever Christmas cake. So far it has turned out wonderfully. It will need "feeding" regularly with brandy and cherry brandy for a few weeks then it will be ready to decorate. I've always bought them in the past but decided to try making my own this year. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Do you make your own Christmas cake? Do you have any tips for icing and decorating it?
I do make my own Christmas cake every year. I macerate my dried fruit in brandy in the fridge for up to two weeks before making the cake. I decorate the top before baking with pecans and red Glace cherries. I normally sit a loose piece of tin foil over the top to stop them burning during the 3 hour cooking time. When the cake is cooked and still warm I feed the cake with warmed Drambuie and then store it in the fridge (cake and the tropical heat don't mix) and will feed it once a week with a little more Drambuie.
I wager this is a UK thing. I don't know what Christmas cake is. We did have plum pudding with hard sauce when I was a kid. It tasted awful. I hope that's not what you're making. I also hope you're not making fruit cake. That stuff is indestructible, much less digestible. I think you need to explain what this is.
It is a fruit cake yes. Once matured and fed regularly with the liqueur of your choice it is covered in marzipan then icing and decorated festively.Here is an example.
With the holidays approaching, let me remind you, FRIENDS DON'T GIVE FRIENDS FRUITCAKE! Give them the booze instead. hehehe
