The Complicated Christmas Cake

As we are going away for a weekend in winter with 4 very special friends, we decided to call it a Mid winter Christmas break....thus I wanted to try out this recipe.  I did it in stages yesterday when small people were sleeping and big kids were playing nicely.  The smell while cooking was just lovely!  I've never been one for Christmas cake.  Not sure why.  I'm not fussed on cherries, perhaps scarred for life from eating at an early age in Christmas cake....who knows.  But I have a new appreciation for the amount of fruit and spices and yummy bits that make up a cake. 

And as tempted as I was last night to cut a slice to try I refrained.  I'm sure the pleasure i get from sharing it with the Farmer and my friends will be worth the wait.  And if it's a horrid disaster?  Drink more wine and laugh, alot.  Considering that is the programme for the weekend I'm sure it will all be fine.

The Complicated Christmas Cake from the book: The Kindness of Strangers – Kitchen Memoirs

by Shonagh Koea

 500 grams each of raisins, sultanas and currants

100 grams of crystallised cherries

100 grams of mixed peel

250 grams of butter

250 grams of sugar

A teaspoon of cinnamon

A teaspoon of ground ginger

Half a teaspoon of ground cloves

Half a teaspoon of grated nutmeg

Half a teaspoon each of vanilla, lemon and almond essences

Two teaspoons  of grated orange rind

Six eggs

350 grams of flour

Two to four tablespoons of orange juice

Wash the raisins, sultanas and currants and dry them in a warm oven.  Add the cherries and the mixed peel to the prepared fruit.   Line a 24-centimetre (nine inch) cake tin with two or three layers of paper and have it six or seven centimetres higher than the sides of the tin.  Cream butter and sugar, and mix in spices, essences and orange rind.  Add eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly after each addition.  Combine enough of the sifted flour with the dried fruit to coat it thoroughly and stir this into the creamed mixture with the orange juice and the remainder of the flour.  Slightly more flour may be needed depending on the quantity of orange juice.   Bake at 150 degrees Celsius for two hours and then 130 degrees Celsius for one and a half to two hours.  Note: This cake does not contain baking powder.

Review to come!  And it would be worth noting that I may have snuck a tablespoon of brandy in the cake, just cos I can!