The reason I’ve combined these two days is mainly to save myself a little time (gotta be real with ya). However, the biggest tradition in my family, whatever the celebration, always involves food. I’m lucky enough to have a mom who cooks and bakes the most delicious food, all year round. But, at Christmas; it’s her time, her moment, she really comes alive (hey mom). Everything is cooked from scratch, and tastes amazing. There are always family favourites that are created every year, and there’ll be a few new things thrown in annually, depending on what’s happening on the home-cooking scene. God, writing this is making me so hungry.
My mom has coeliac disease, so she has to have gluten free food. This might limit what she can cook or bake you might think. But, no. You’d never know that gluten was an issue, or that my parent’s house doesn’t have a bit of the stuff anywhere. Mom is very good at getting any recipe and making a gluten free, and often better, version. She’s pretty magical. Every year she makes a Christmas cake; I thought I’d share the love, and pop the recipe up here for you because it’s so good. I’ve been given the extra added ingredients (basically, it’s more booze and fruit than the recipe says), and a couple of photos of the finished cake. If you have coeliac disease, are wheat or gluten intolerant, or know somebody else who is; this is the perfect Christmas cake recipe for you. If you can eat as much gluten as you like; this is also the perfect Christmas cake recipe for you. Because, it’s my moms’.
Ingredients:
- 1 x 1kg pack of mixed dried fruit (mom varies these, and always adds cranberries, dried apricots, prunes, then drowns them eight times over in alcohol, or in her words “I always feed it with booze”)
- 200g butter
- 200g dark brown sugar
- 1 lemon, grated rind
- 1 orange, grated rind
- 4 medium eggs, beaten
- 250g gluten free flour mix (Juvela)
- 50g ground almonds
- Half a teaspoon mixed spice
- Half a teaspoon of nutmeg
- 75g chopped glace cherries
- 50g peeled + grated carrots
Method:
- Grease and line a 22.5 cm round tin
- Pre-heat oven to 150°C
- Place the (inebriated) fruit in boiling water and stir
- Drain and rinse fruit, and dry thoroughly
- Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy in a big bowl (my mom has about 89745 bowls; I’m sure she’d lend you one)
- Add the grated rinds, the eggs, the flour mix, the almonds, and the spices
- Mix together well
- Stir in the drunken fruit, the cherries, and the grated carrot
- Place the mixture in the tin leaving a slight hollow in the middle
- Wrap a double layer of foil around the tin and bake in the oven for about 3.5 – 4 hours
- Stick a fine skewer in to see if it’s baked all the way through (it should come out clean)
- Leave the cake to cool before doing with it what you will
You can store this cake for up to 5 months in greaseproof paper and foil! And, if you’re like my mom; you can keep topping it up with whatever festive tipple takes your fancy (hiccup). So, maybe you can pull this recipe out in August?! This year; my mom has used a thick layer marzipan to cover the cake, and decorated it with some holly and berries made from icing, which I think looks lovely. Previously, she’s used marzipan as an underlay to royal icing, and decorated with icing snowflakes and edible glitter. The decoration part is totally up to you; I love seeing what my mom has done each year, as it often changes.
Peace, love, and boozy fruit, Fay x
hey it's fay 