Edna's CHRISTMAS CAKE Recipe
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Category: |
Category: |
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Christmas Cake |
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Ingredients: |
Ingredients: ½ lb (2 sticks) plus 4 T butter, softened
2 c chopped mixed candied peel (10 oz.)
2 c white raisins (10 oz.)
1½ c dried currants (8 oz.)
1 c seedless raisins (5 oz.)
½ c candied cherries cut in half (4 oz.)
½ c finely chopped candied angelisa (4 oz.)
2 c all purpose flour
½ tsp double acting baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 c dark brown sugar
1 c shelled almonds (6 oz.) pulverized in a blender or ½ c ground almonds
4 eggs
¼ c pale dry sherry, rum or brandy or fruit juice.
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Directions: |
Directions:Preheat oven to 325º. Using a pastry brush, coat the bottom and sides of a 12x3 inch spring form cake pan with 2 Tablespoons of the soft butter. Coat one side of a 20" strip of wax paper with 2 Tablespoons of butter and fit the paper greased side up inside the pan.
In a large bowl (probably the pink one again) combine the fruit peel, white raisins, cherries and angelica. Sprinkle the fruit with ½ cup of the flour, tossing it about with a spoon to coat the pieces evenly. Set aside.
In another large bowl, cream the remaining ½ lb. of butter with the brown sugar, by mashing and beating them against the sides of the bowl until they are light and fluffy. Add the pulverized almonds, then beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add the flour and baking powder mixture, a half cup or so at a time. Beat the fruit mixture into the batter. Finally, all the sherry and pour the batter into the spring form pan. It should come to no more than an inch from the top. If necessary, remove and discard any excess.
Bake in the middle of oven for 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of cake comes out clean.
Let the cake cool for 30 minutes before removing the sides of the spring form, then slip it off the bottom of the pan onto a cake rack to cool completely. Don't peel off the wax paper if you will be storing the cake for a while. It helps to hold in the moisture.
Wrap the cake well with wax paper or parchment and then foil.
You will put the layer of marzipan over the cake before you ice it, and the icing goes on when you are going to serve it.
So Cool and Store, then marzipan, then icing and decorating, Serving. |
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MARZIPAN COVERING |
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Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 3 T apricot jam
powdered sugar, sifted
1 lb (8 oz.) marzipan
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Directions: |
Directions:The week before you want to serve, begin covering the cake with the marzipan layer.
Place the unwrapped cake upside down on a cake board slightly larger than the cake (this gives the top a flat surface).
Brush the cake with warmed apricot jam. On a dusted with powdered sugar work surface roll out the marzipan to about 2 inches larger than the cake. Keep moving it as you roll so it won't stick. Dust with more powdered sugar. Lift the marzipan over the cake and gently smooth it out over the top and sides. Cut off any excess at the base.
Cover loosely with parchment paper for a few days to thoroughly dry out before adding the icing.
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ICING |
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Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 6 c confectioner's (powdered) sugar, sifted
4 egg whites
1 T strained fresh lemon juice
⅛ tsp salt
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Directions: |
Directions: Combine the 6 cups of powdered sugar, egg whites, lemon juice and ⅛ teaspoon salt in a large mixing bowl. With electric beater, beat until the mixture is fluffy but firm enough to stand in soft peaks on the beater when it is lifted out of the bowl. With a small metal spatula spread the icing evenly over the sides and top of the cake.
Then decorate with swirls of icing, fresh or artificial holly and mistletoe, candied fruits or even small china reindeer, people and houses.
To Store the cake:
After marzipan has been put on. Wrap the cake in foil or plastic and let it stand at room temperature for at least 48 hours before icing. The cake may be stored for longer periods. It improves with age and can be kept for several months. Just before serving ice the cake.
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Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: The middle instructions are missing and I had to fill them in with a recipe off the internet. This cake is a lot of work. I am in awe of the amount of pre-planning time wise that goes into this. You can't just plan it the week before.
Mom loved to make it because it reminded her of home in Northern Ireland and the Christmas customs there. She would save most of the decorations to reuse. The ribbon that went around the cake, the little christmas trees she put on top and some artificial holly. She was, if nothing else, frugal, she saved everything, including used gift wrapping paper and ribbons.
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This recipe for Edna's CHRISTMAS CAKE is from