There are some times when it’s a bit to early to use the ‘C’ word, but when it comes to making a Christmas cake it’s good to be organised! Last year, my Mum gave me the recipe card for our family Christmas cake. It was from Family Circle back in the day and has the amounts for various sizes of square and circular tins, so it’s pretty handy. I was so excited to make it! I was pregnant at the time and having a break from my blog, which is why the recipe has only just made it here this year. Now it’s that time again when I’m starting to think about making one for this Christmas. I fed this cake with brandy 2-3 times before adding the marzipan and icing, which I made without egg whites last year. We love this recipe and I hope you will too!

Ingredients (for a 15cm /6″ round cake tin)

225g (8oz) sultanas

225g (8oz) currants

225g (8oz) raisins

50g (2oz) Glace cherries, chopped

50g (2oz) candied peel, chopped

50g (2oz) chopped almonds (chop up some blanched almonds if you can’t find them ready-chopped)

225g (8oz) plain flour

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

150g (6oz) butter

150g (6oz) soft dark brown sugar

3 large eggs

To prepare the tin

Cut a double thickness strip of greaseproof paper to fit around the sides of the tin, and stand 5cm (2″) higher than the rim. Make a 2.5cm (1″) fold along the lower edge, and then snip from the edge to the fold along the lower edge at 1cm (1/2″) intervals all the way along. Grease the tin and then insert the strip around the sides, pressing the snipped pieces flat onto the bottom of the tin. Press paper agains the sides. Cut a double thickness of greaseproof paper to fit the base of the tin and grease lightly.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140 (120 Fan)/Gas mark 1. Measure the dried fruit, cherries, peel and almonds and put them in a large bowl. Sift the flour and spices over the top and mix well.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy – you can use an electric mixer if you have one.

3. Beat the eggs together and add a little at a time to the creamed mixture, alternating with the fruit and flour mix. Beat well between each addition.

4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, spreading it carefully and firmly into the corners.

5. To protect the cake whilst baking, tie several thicknesses of newspaper around the outside of the cake tin with string. Stand a roasting tin of water at the bottom of the oven during cooking to keep your cake moist.

6. Bake for 3 hours, and remove from the oven when a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. It may take a little longer, depending on your oven.

7. Cool in the tin for an hour, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Store it in an air tight tin in a cool, dark place.

Finishing your Christmas cake

I usually marzipan and ice our Christmas cake a couple of weeks before the big day. This leaves chance for me to feed it some brandy beforehand! Last year I fed it in 2-week intervals, with 1 tbsp of brandy each time. You can feed it as much or as little as you prefer – I don’t like it to be overwhelmed by the alcohol. Leave your cake in the tin for 2 weeks after baking before adding the marzipan and icing. You’ll need some warmed up apricot jam to stick the marzipan to your cake.

The standard way to ice a Christmas cake is to use Royal icing – click here for a recipe. I couldn’t use that last year because Royal icing contains egg whites, so I made a very thick water icing with a splash of lemon juice. If the icing doesn’t have snowy peaks, then it isn’t a traditional Christmas cake as far as I’m concerned!

I didn’t get any good photos of the finished cake last year, so this post will be updated in a few weeks so you can see the finished Christmas cake. You may want to try out some of my other festive recipes and crafty projects below too!

Post updated 24th November 2020.

The post Christmas Cake appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

This recipe is another from Tom’s mum and it is really simple, but as with all hot cross bun recipes it does take a lot of time. But it is well worth it to have freshly made hot cross buns and Easter and they will make your kitchen smell amazing!

Ingredients

340g/12oz strong white bread flour
55g/2oz light muscovado sugar (I used dark because, as usual, I realised I didn’t have any!)
2tsp mixed spice
Half a tsp of grated nutmeg
Half a tsp salt
2 packets easyblend yeast
55g/2oz sultanas
55g/2oz mixed peel
6fl oz warm milk and water mixed (I used about 4 fl oz of milk and topped with boiling water)
1 egg, beaten
55g/2oz melted butter

Method

1. Put all of the dry ingredients and fruit into a bowl and mix well.

2. Add all of the wet ingredients and mix well – the mixture will be sticky! Cover and set to rise for about 2 hours in a warm place (as it rises you’ll hear it sound like Rice Krispies when you’ve just poured the milk on!)

3. Turn out the dough and knead, before dividing into 12 and shaping into buns. Cut crosses in the top and place on a baking sheet and leave to rise again for about 40-50 minutes.

4. Bake in a preheated oven at 425F/220C/Gas mark 7 for 20-25 minutes, but keep an eye on them because mine cooked rather quickly!

5. Whilst still warm, glaze the buns with 1tbsp sugar dissolved in 1tbsp warm milk. Put the kettle on and enjoy whilst they’re warm!

Now, you may be wondering why my buns have weird shapes on…well, I found a really cool thing on pinterest about making bunny bread and I had an idea that I could try it with hot cross buns – to make hot cross bunnies! But it didn’t quite go to plan and I think they look more like hot cross stegosauruses…but they taste good! The bunny bread looks like this:

Mine looked like this when I made the ears:

Maybe it was the fruit in the buns that made it difficult?! I don’t know…will have to try another time! Whether you make hot cross buns or try your own hot cross bunnies, I hope you have a very Happy Easter!

The post Hot Cross Buns appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Pastelitos de Boda are also known as ‘Mexican Wedding Cakes’, but we only ever make them at Christmas and never really associate them with any other time of year! This recipe is from Tom’s Mum, Helen, and she’s been making them for years. It took me ages to be able to pronounce the name properly, and for a long time I called them ‘Pasty Tasty biscuits’! But whatever you decide to call them, they’re so yummy!

These biscuits are super easy to make, and we gave a few jars of them as presents this year. I made four jars in one morning, so if you still need to get your presents sorted this could be for you!

Ingredients (makes 1 batch of 21 biscuits)

225g/8oz plain flour
225g/8oz butter
110g/4oz cornflour
60g/2oz golden caster sugar

60g/2oz icing sugar, sifted
1tsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180/350/Gas mark 4. Mix the flour and cornflour together in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub together.

2. When almost combined, add the sugar and squash together. The mixture is quite sticky, but keep going until a dough is formed.

3. Grease a couple of baking trays, before rolling the mixture into small balls. Bake in the oven for around 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

4. When the biscuits come out of the oven, give each one a little nudge to make sure they haven’t stuck to the tray. Leave on the tray for 5 minutes before moving onto a cooling rack.

5. Once cooled, dust with the icing sugar and cinnamon (mixed together beforehand). I find it’s easier to sift the sugar and cinnamon into a bowl and then roll the biscuits around in it!

The jars that I used for Christmas gifts were from ikea, and I tied a simple label on the front and some festive ribbon in a bow too. Simple, but really effective I think!

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