Christmas Cake Part 1 - ingredients.

My daughters and I are getting ready to make the Christmas Cake next week. It is a bit of a mammoth task and frankly it would be much easier to do on my own but I really feel that in our family, or at least the sort family that my husband and I want to build, doing things together as a family is what Christmas is all about. And making the food together is as much "Inclusive Cooking" as eating it together is.

I have such happy memories of being able to help my own mum make our family cake. The smells, the arm aching mixing and the taste of licking the bowl afterwards evoke such strong and happy memories. Obviously I've had to adapt the recipe over the years as we discovered my allergy to nuts and my husband's gluten intolerance, so what I'm sharing with you is not my Mum's family recipe, it's my family recipe. Tried and tested and frankly bloomin' brilliant!

Who is it suitable for?

There are no nuts and no gluten, there is dairy and it does have egg, you could go with an 'egg replacement' powder mix if this is your allergy but this year I will trial a vegan version for you and let you know how I get on. My cake also contains plenty of alcohol (Napoleon brandy and Cointreau, which are both vegan), you could try and make it without but it will be dry, it wont have the same rich flavour and I'm not sure how well it would keep so maybe only make it a week in advance. Sadly if you have a citrus allergy your cake is going to lack some of the essential flavours, however if you are only mildly allergic it might be worth investigating whether or not you can tolerate Cointreau, in which case skip the peel (add a little extra crystallised ginger instead) decrease the brandy and increase the Cointreau. 

This cake contains LOTS of calories and is not suitable for a reducing diet!

I'm splitting the ingredients and method into two different blog posts (and the vegan one, if it works out into a third post) because I know some of you are waiting to get started and this will give you a chance to source your ingredients.

The alcohol

As I explained I use brandy and Cointreau. For me these spirits embody some of the strongest scents of Christmas and I will be using them a lot in other posts before the big day so if you can possibly splash out on both bottles then I promise to help you make good use of them (I'll even volunteer to finish the bottles off for you myself!!) If cost is an issue get one or two Cointreau miniature bottles and a half bottle of brandy. (Oh, OK you can have Grand Marnier instead of Cointreau if you want but it wont have my happy holiday memories attached to it!)
Cointreau is distilled after adding the orange flavour so it is possible that if you do have a mild citrus allergy then the chemicals which trigger the sensitivity may be destroyed in the process but you will have to work this one out VERY carefully, certainly don't try if you have anaphylaxis. 

The eggs and dairy

The freshest eggs work best in this so if you can, buy them only the day before you plan to make the cake. Your heart will be happier and so will the chickens if you buy organic free-range ones. You will also need 250g of salted butter. Do not use spreadable butter (even if you are not allergic to it like me), it's got too many other oils and water in for this recipe. The method I use is easier if the butter and the eggs are at room temperature when you need to use them. It would be possible to switch the eggs for an egg-replacement powder if you needed to avoid them.

The Sugars

You will need 280g of dark soft brown sugar. Please consider getting Fair Trade sugar as the growers themselves get more money helping them to have a better Christmas too.
You will also need 1 tablespoon of black treacle.

The Spices

Always buy the freshest, highest quality spices you can afford for the best aroma. You will need half a level teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, mixed spice and ginger. A little crystallised ginger is optional. I know salt isn't a spice but you will need a pinch and I've no other category to put it in!

The flour

I've tried various gluten free flours, maize flour was too course, potato flour too bitter, rice flour on it's own is a little gritty and it needs the 'grip' of the proprietary blends so I compromise with 140g of Dove farm Plain White Gluten Free and 140g of Doves Farm Rice flour, both of which have the advantage of being organic. (If you want to make this recipe with a plain white wheat flour you should note that gluten free flour does not absorb fat well so I've reduced the amount of butter, to get the same texture with wheat you will need an extra 40g of butter.) Half a level teaspoon of xanthan gum also helps but is not essential.

The Fruit

The zest of 1 lemon, make sure it's has an untreated skin, even the organic ones can have some wax smeared on the outside to make them look shiny and taste awful.

Glace cherries, much glace fruit has wheat in it so you have to be careful. I've chosen Crazy Jacks organic glace because they promise there's no wheat and they're organic. You will need 120g.

Candied peel, again Crazy jacks because they use cane sugar. 120g of peel OR 60g of peel and 60g of crystallised stem ginger. I prefer it with the ginger but my little girls find it a bit strong so I've use all peel for the past couple of years.

120g of dried ('ready to eat') prunes, again I like Crazy Jacks but my regular supplier isn't stocking them so I've had to turn to the supermarket own brand.

Currants 510g, raisins 225g and sultanas 225g, by now it wont surprise you that I like Crazy Jacks ones, they are organic but most importantly for me they are not coated in palm oil. 
(RANT WARNING!!)
Dried fruit like this has been a right pain for me over many years, so much dried fruit is covered in a horrid sticky layer of palm oil just so it looks nice and shiny and pours easily out of the bag.  I can't risk eating anything containing dried vine fruits that has been prepared outside of my home, not cake, not cookies not mince pies, not even muesli because the fruits are nearly always covered in palm oil. If I sound sore about it that's because I am and it's not just for me and the similarly afflicted it's because most if it isn't sustainably sourced, it's made by destroying large areas of jungle that also happens to be orangutans homes. If we want these beautiful primates to survive we need to cut our dependency on this oil. Now pass me a cold flannel and we'll move on.

The currents, raisins and sultanas will all still have some oil on them, (even if it is organic sunflower oil) I find I get much better result if I rinse all three in cool water a couple of times just before I use them. (Top tip to dry them, pop them in the salad spinner, but do it gently!)


Just one more word about all this lovely fruit so I can say a big thank you. Last year I had real problems getting Crazy Jack stuff particularly the currents, my local health food shop were brilliant at trying to get the stuff for me and helped me try to find an alternative. After a long Internet search I found a different brand stocked by place in Brighton. I'd like to thank the staff at both places for the help they gave me last year so that my family cake was ready in time. So here's to Elf Foods and Healthy Supplies.

And finally...
Now you just need to find yourself a very big bowl, an electric whisk, a 9inch round or an 8inch square cake tin, some greaseproof paper, some brown paper and some string, some clingfilm, some baking foil, a large board to mount the cake on and a whole heap of icing!



Part 2 - Getting Sticky!