Connie's Christmas Cake

This is the Christmas cake I have made this year. The recipe comes from my Aunty Connie in Whangarei.

Mum was talking to her one day in early December. She got the recipe, and rang me at 9am on a Monday morning, saying she had just put her cake in the oven, and it looked like it would be a good recipe.

By midday I have my cake mixed up and in the oven (I happened to have just bought some fruit mix), and my sister Rae, in Dunedin, had had a similar phone call and also made the recipe that same day. In the evening mum was able to ring Connie and report on the three cakes that had been produced around the country during the day.

Connie's Dargaville Christmas Cake

3/4 cup sugar
100g butter
1 Tbls. golden syrup
¾ cup milk
1t almond ess.
1t vanilla ess.
1T marmalade
1 kg. mixed fruit
2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup plain flour
2t mixed spice
1t baking powder
2 no. 7 eggs
¼ cup brandy

Heat sugar, butter, golden syrup, milk, essence and marmalade till butter is melted.
Add fruit, then sifted dry ingredients. Lastly add beaten egg.
Pat top of cake with wet hand and then drop cake on the floor (or bench) to release air bubbles.
Bake in middle of oven at 125 degrees C for 3 hours without opening oven door.

I made mine in a 9" square tin, which was a good size, though if you like a taller cake, use an 8" tin. I also put the brandy over the cooked cake (2T on the top, then cover closely with foil, then 2T on the bottom when the cake is cold and you turn it out, then cover tightly again). This is what I usually do, and the recipe didn't say otherwise.

If you haven't made a Christmas cake before, you should line the bottom of the tin with a piece of butter paper so it comes out easily. Greasing the sides of the tin is not necessary, as you can run a knife around before turning the cake out. (You should ideally leave a Christmas cake in the tin until it is cool - at least let it stand in the tin for a while.)

A bigger cake, which cooked for longer, would also have the tin lined with one or two layers of brown paper, extending above the level of the tin at the sides. In theory this gives the sides (which cook first) some protection from overcooking while the centre finishes cooking.

I iced my cake with Brandy Butter icing, made with 2T softened butter, about 2 cups sifted icing sugar, mixed to a spreadable consistancy with brandy, a bit at a time. I cut the cake only a week after I made it at the Christmas party, and it cut very nicely, with no crumbling, and very moist.

It is probably a bit late for Christmas day if anyone reading hasn't made their cake (!!), but New Year is a good excuse for a fruity cake too.