Granny’s Christmas Cake
Traditional Christmas recipes are regarded as sacrosanct in many families. Each family jealously guarding their own recipes. Granny was particularly proud of her Christmas cake - but always happy to share the recipe - in which the dried fruit soaks enticingly in brandy for a week before even starting to mix in the other ingredients.
Make this at least 3-4 weeks before Christmas...Put dried fruit in bowl or jar and
sprinkle with brandy. Stir well and cover tightly. Leave for 3-4 days, preferably a
week. Line an 8 in (20 cm) cake tin with 2 layers of baking parchment and one layer of greaseproof paper.Tie a band of brown paper round the outside of the tin for extra protection. Add the cherries, peel and nuts to the soaked fruit. Sieve the flour with the baking powder, salt and spice in large bowl. Cream the butter with the zest, add the sugar and beat again. Beat in the treacle, then slowly add the eggs beating the mixture well between each addition. Mix in half the flour very lightly, fold in the soaked fruit and flour alternately and any liquid left in the bowl, and the essence. Put the mixture into the tin, hollowing it gradually from the centre to the sides.Top with a square of greaseproof paper for added protection. Bake at 170°C for 2 hours, then reduce to 150°C for approx 1 1/2 hours. (Test with a skewer after about 1 1/4 hours). Leave the cake in the tin in the oven with the heat turned off and the door open for 1/2 hour before turning out.Wrap in greaseproof paper when quite cold. The cake improves with keeping. Prick the top with a skewer every so often and sprinkle more brandy onto the cake. Let it absorb before re-wrapping and putting into a tin or plastic container.
The cake will be ready to be coated in marzipan (almond paste) in 4 to 6 weeks, and then two days after that it will be ready to be iced. See recipe links below:
Theo Hodges
Theo Hodges was born in Kent. After a degree in Graphic Design she joined J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency as an Art Director working on accounts such as Rowntrees, Kraft and The Butter Council. While she was at University in Perugia, Italy she started collecting recipes from friends and family. In 1980 she set up her own design agency: Theo Hodges Design Consultants. For many years when they were young Theo, her sister and six cousins used to spend vacations at her Grandmother’s Victorian vicarage in Kent. ‘The thing about remembering childhood’ she says, is ‘there’s a whole lot of oblivion, and then out of it something floats up, quite sharp and clear. Many of the meals I can still see vividly and various recipes of mine were originally from Granny’s kitchen. ‘The kitchen garden was stuffed with raspberries, huge red dessert gooseberries, strawberries, runner beans, peas and much more with the hens in a shed at the back. But Granny only ate chicken breast and runner beans, followed by raspberries and Jersey cream - and therefore so did we. When raspberries were out of season, and in those days the season was much shorter, Granny made Victoria sponge cakes sandwiched with cream and home-made raspberry jam. On this limited but delicious diet we all thrived’. Theo’s mother was an excellent cook as well, and had been taught by the house- keeper at their house in Mougins, South of France. And once rationing was withdrawn in England in 1952 and good, fresh ingredients became available again, she amassed an enormous number of recipes which has formed the basis for Theo’s collection of family desserts.