When closing to 2 months before Christmas, supermarkets will start to fill their racks with Christmas Fruit Cakes which are costly. We found a whisky Christmas Fruit Cake that cost S$16.90 for a 300g size cake and S$38.80 for 800g size cake.
Time for me to learn how to prepare and bake our own since
deary loves Christmas Fruit Cake so much. It'll be a long while till I'll bake it again, so I'll be documenting it for the benefit of our readers and ourselves. Detail step by step process will be listed down here and further 2 or 3 more post that will come after. After this post the next will be preparing your baking pan then follow by baking and final one will be about feeding.
You can modify it but don't go so far off these measurements.
Below is what we're using for our 2013 Fruit Cake!
Ingredients that We're using
250g Black Raisins
90g Golden Raisins
125g Dried Cherries
75g Dried Mango
75g Dried Cranberries
10g Dried Peach
500ml of Whisky/Brandy
Below is what we're using for our 2014 Fruit Cake!
Ingredients that We're using
500g Mixed Fruits
125g Golden Raisins
1 cup Walnut (roughly chopped)
500ml of Whisky/Brandy
Whisky or Brandy is the most suggested options.
2013 trial we're spilting the receipe into 2 types of alcohol, Cointreau & Hennesy Cognac VSOP for our first Christmas Fruit Cake trial. Total of 1 Litre is required for this recipe we're baking.
2014 trial we used to Cointreau.
You'll need 1 or 2 glass jars depending on the size you have and 2 tea clothes. Do not use plastic cointainers as adviced by my friend. Cut up the big chunks of dried fruits and mix them up using a spoon. Check out the pretty colors.
Pour the alcohol till it covers the mixed dried fruits.
Marinating overnight will do. However, base on one of our friend she give us that her family secret was to soak for minumum one week and can go upto two months. For our 1st trial, we're going for one week.
Remember to give it a mix every day to loosen up the mixed fruits and give me more space to expand while they soak up the alcohol.
Here are the photos of a week old of marination. Clearly from the picture the alcohol have soaked into the dried fruits which smells amazing from a far to us and sharp and bitter when smell near. Between,
deary and me, we can't drink! Hahaha...
A day before you want to bake the christmas fruit cake,prepare your baking pans.
Items needed
(x6) 5" x 1.5" baking pan
Vege Oil Spray
parchment or Greaseproof Paper
Newspapers
Line a baking pan with double layer of parchment or greaseproof paper with a double layer of newspaper wrapped inside. Tie with a cooking string or use stapler to hold the shape. The baking pan will have to stand on a double layer of newspaper in the oven too!
The reason is that Christmas Cake contains a lot of sweet, dried fruits and sugar. Also, cooking of the cake takes over 4 hours. Wrapping the cake tin, as standing the cake tin on a double layer of newspaper protects the bottom and sides of the cake. It prevents it from cooking too quickly and more importantly, burning during the long slow cooking.
Repeat until all your tins are wrapped.
When done with Part 1 process it's time for Part 2: Baking the Christmas Fruit Cake. Click Here.
After done with Part 2 process it's time for the Final Part 3: Feeding Time for the Christmas Fruit Cake. Coming Soon
HAVE FUN & ENJOY!!!!!!
Click here for our blog page Baking Classes for more recipes. Hope you will be inspired~
