The fruit had to soak, covered, overnight. By the morning everything had plumped up nicely, and I resisted the urge to pop a boozy raisin into my mouth. Day two involved the cake bit: very straightforward, but physically demanding. My worn-out electric whisk wouldn't have coped with mixing this lot up so it was wooden spoon action all the way. What did make it a bit easier was adding the fruit to the 'wet' ingredients bit by bit. Sometimes there's a danger of the flour not being mixed in properly - this wasn't an issue; I did, however, have my customary butter problems again. I think I need to go one step beyond 'squeezably soft' and whip the butter to a paste before I chuck it in with the other ingredients.
As it was, I just tried to blend in any larger masses of butter as I mixed. There weren't many, and I knew that the baking would help to disperse it further, but I do wonder if it's this (as well as the loose-bottomed tin) which contributes to the buttery leakage at the bottom of the oven. At least I'd predicted this: I put a baking tray beneath the cake-tin to catch the drips. It is frustrating though: surely not that much butter should leak out. Perhaps the cakes are trying to cut our calories for us...
The cake baked for 4 and a half hours and filled the house with the rich aroma of Christmas for a good 2 of them. I don't think there is any better smell, for the warm and fuzzy associations it creates. I wish smells could be bottled and captured forever. The skewer came out clean after that time (the minimum suggested); the cake looked and smelt great, with no hint of charring (a result of covering the cake with some baking parchment). It did flatten the top a bit (my fault for pressing it down and not laying it 'lightly' on top to start with), but this also created some little flaky bits to pick off and nibble!
My blog for this cake needs to pause here, pending comments on the taste etc when we get to Christmas! Six and a half weeks to go...
Christmas 2012
And now, after two months spent waiting for all that lovely brandy to soak in and work its magic, here we have the finished article! I 'fed' it at the end of November with several tablespoons, and then wrapped it back up; when I unwrapped it on Christmas Eve it smelt lovely, and felt nice and moist. I was a bit of a renegade when it came to the icing, realising too late that you're meant to leave a 24-hour gap between marzipan and icing. I also cheated by buying the ready-made stuff. Mary says it's ok, and life's too short...
I was anxious about the covering of the cake, having never worked with marzipan or royal icing before, but was relieved to find the whole process much simpler than I thought. I had far too much marzipan by the time I'd rolled it out to the required thickness (nice and thin), so Mum and I made some petite fours with the leftovers. I initially forgot to put the apricot jam on, so had to gently lift it off and apply said jam to seal it to the cake. I then left it to 'dry' for a few hours before rolling out and placing the icing. Again, this was easier to work with than expected, and I managed to get a nice smooth finish.
I'd toyed with the idea of messing about with food colouring to get some authentic-looking holly as decoration, and also with buying some edible glitter, but didn't feel especially inspired by what was in the supermarkets. In the end, I thought 'less is more' and just used my new Christmas cutters to cut out some stars and holly (in honour of the two names given to my poorly little cat) and dressed it up with a nice festive ribbon. I was very pleased with the end result; sometimes Christmas cakes can look a bit gaudy in my book!
And so to the taste. I was really pleased with the cake: it retained its moisture and had a lovely flavour, not too overpowering with brandy. It didn't feel dry, or sticky: the texture was just right. I also liked the balance between cake and marzipan + icing. Because I'd kept the layers quite thin, you didn't get a massive sugary hit from the topping, just a nice balance with the cake.
Baker's verdict: this will do nicely as a Christmas cake to make year on year. Enjoyable and straightforward to make and very tasty.
Husband rating: 7.5/10 - great Christmas cake, but I'm not a massive fan of Christmas cake. Tasty, but not my kind of cake.
Mum and Dad rating: 9.5/10 - the only thing which would improve this is bigger pieces of cherry.
Mother-in-Law comment: 'the best I've ever eaten'.
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