Christmas cake

[Maz]

Decided to make a Christmas cake. It’s a recipe for 1 week before Christmas - it's currently over two weeks before Christmas but that's ok too - a week before Christmas is the latest it can be made. Made it lots of times in the past but not for a few years. The last few years we bought one - which is easier - but they are blooming expensive and none of us like the icing (although you can peel it off) and not quite the same. So although it’s time consuming and effort somehow I decided to make one again. I will appreciate it when the time comes as I know most of the ingredients are organic and no preservatives - so it feels a bit more special.

This was a joint effort between OH and I so took even longer ha ha. He grated the orange and lemon peel.

Managed not to burn it

It’s now given me another job though as in a week’s time I’ll need to marzipan it. We gave up on icing years ago and just have marzipan and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Mouth watering. Looking forward to seeing it iced

 

[Lovelyness]

Looks lovely I used to make panforte which was a very last minute Italian Christmas cake .

 

[Maz]

Ooh that looks lovely - is panaforte chocolate?

 

[Lovelyness]

Ooh that looks lovely - is panaforte chocolate?

No, it’s a fruitcake. All the taste of Christmas cake with none of the faff! I think I used a BBC good food recipe

 

[Lovelyness]

Panforte recipe

Panforte is a sweet Italian speciality perfect for homemade gifts or for finishing a festive meal. It keeps well for a month.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Lovelyness]

You can pretty much put whatever fruit/ nuts/liquid you want in it. I remember using dried cranberries and orange juice.

 

[Lovelyness]

The recipe does say to put cocoa powder in, but I don’t think I ever spotted that lol I don’t ever remember putting it in

 

[Maz]

It sounds lovely . I can’t remember where my cake recipe came from - it’s written in my recipe book and been there at least 14 years - maybe someone gave it to me - I didn’t use the internet as much 14 years ago. It’s a “week before Christmas “ cake. Ingredients seem the same as any other Christmas cake though but you heat the dried fruit, brandy and orange juice in a pan rather than soaking them. And maybe a bit less fruit and more flour - I’m not sure. It’s my favourite recipe though as it always comes out well and I don’t usually think about a cake until it’s too late. Don’t think I’ve ever made one in October and fed it weekly!

 

[Lovelyness]

Your cake does look very good, and sounds like a good option

 

[Maz]

If it gets eaten! There are only three of us. I’ve usually made a 6” one and even that doesn’t all get eaten. This is a 7” one. It’s the same recipe - with a 6” one I had enough mixture left over to make a small 5” one as well which I sometimes gave to someone - or put it in the freezer and it got eaten later in the year. With the 7” one there was still mixture left for two buns in a bun tin but I had to guess the cooking time and temperature for those and the bottoms got a bit burned. I was going to bin those but OH said just cut the bottom off and freeze them . So I guess the recipe is meant for an 8” tin ….

I expect about half of it will get eaten and then I can freeze the rest - OH will always eat cake any time!

 

[Maz]

Thank you. The panaforte sounds great too. I asked if it was chocolate because we bought a chocolate one once. At least I think it was panaforte.

It was this one! It was a bit like chocolate biscuit cake! But yummy. So I assumed they were all chocolate!

https://www.bettys.co.uk/chocolate-panforte?srsltid=AfmBOopxlTEIsOYfa-0Iazqswp4mcP1B8_fvFzC6pTj6mDV8rfDbjULM