It's Gonna be a white Xmas (well, cake anyway) (Cakes)

Member Name: Andy2901

Product:	Cakes
Date:	04/11/08 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The satisfaction of home baked cake

Disadvantages: Preparation

Home made cakes are lot more better than shop bought mass produced ones, so for a change this Christmas, why not try baking a White Christmas Cake. It's not white as in pure white but more of a light fruit cake. I made this one last year and all who tried it, liked it, so it's on the menu again thiis year.

As it's a light fruit cake it won't keep as good as a traditional dark one so it shouldn't be made more than four weeks in advance, and also it shouldn't be made less than a week before Christmas. No icing is required as it is meant to be left un-iced, however if you prefer it iced, there's nothing to stop you icing it.

Ingredients for an 8" cake.

4 ounces crystallised pineapple
4 ounces glace cherries
4 ounces crystallised ginger
4 ounces sultanas
3 ounces chopped candied peel
12 ounces plain flour
9 ounces butter
9 ounces caster sugar
4 large eggs
4 ounces coarsley chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons of brandy

Preparation and baking:

Wash the sugar coating from the cherries, pineapple and ginger in warm water and par dry. Then cut the cherries in half and coarsely chop the ginger and pineapple. Place them in a mixing bowl along with the peel, sultanas and brandy, cover, and leave overnight.

The next day, sift the flour and put to one side. In another mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together untill soft and light. Lightly beat the eggs and then mix them into the creamed butter and sugar a little amount at a time, adding a little of the sifted flower with the last few additions of the beaten egg.

Using a metal spoon, you then fold in half of the remaining flour, then add the fruits that have been soaked in brandy overnight along with any liquid in the bowl, and also the walnuts. Finaly, fold in the remaining flour.

Spoon the mixture into a greased and lined 8" tin. Spread it evenly and hollow out the centre slightly. Place the tin below the centre of your oven preheated to gas mark 2, 150c/300f and bake for 2 hours 45 mins or untill cooked. You can test this in the normal way at the end with a skewer, if it comes out clean, it's done. If it doesn't, test every 5 minutes untill it does.

And there you have it, a white Christmas cake. Though it's not meant to be iced, and I'm not an icing fan anyway, this year, the day before eating, I'm going to attempt to cover the top of mine with melted white chocolate. If it goes wrong, I'll cover it with custard and eat it anyway, I'm not going to all that trouble for nothing.

Merry Cakemas

Summary: It's a change from the norm