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Christmas cake tips
When making your Christmas cake
Vary the flavour of your Christmas cake by using any dried fruits you fancy, so long as the total weight adds up to the weight of dried fruit in the recipe. Try adding chopped dried apricots, pineapple, mango, figs and dates or dried cranberries for a change.
A traditional Christmas cake cooks at a low temperature for a long time.
To prevent the outside of the cake becoming a little dry, line the tin with 3 layers of baking parchment and then wrap 3 layers of brown paper like a collar around the outside of the tin and secure with paperclips or string.
It is vital that your oven is preheated when cooking a Christmas cake. If a large quantity of cake mixture goes into an oven set on a low temperature it will take along time for the oven to reach the correct temperature and the cake will not cook correctly.
Thats why we recommend starting the cake off at a higher temperature for an hour and then reduce the temperature for the remaining time
When your Christmas cake is cooked, allow to cool in the tin for half an hour then remove it from the tin and allow it to cool upside down on a clean work surface or board. This will help give the cake a nice flat surface ready for icing.
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Recipe of the Month
Rhubarb Crumble
Everyone will love this rhubarb crumble recipe. If you fancy putting a twist on the classic why not add orange rind and juice or chopped stem ginger to the rhubarb or add a handful of choppe...
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