Merry Christmas from me to you - My Xmas Cake Recipe!!

Hi all,

I've had a stack of requests for the Christmas Cake that I made last year.  Unfortunately I just don't have the oven time and space.  You also have to charge a lot of money for them because the ingredients are expensive and the time it takes.  So to make up for some peoples disappointment I have decided to give you one of my favourite Christmas Cake recipes and you can give it a go yourself.

This recipe is easy and it doesn't use too many different ingredients.  Some have lots of different dried fruits but I like the traditional mixed fruit combo and you don't have to spend hours cutting up fruit.  You do need to be  prepared though.  The fruit needs to be soaked for 24hrs before and the cake needs 24hrs to come to room temp before serving.  Here it is:

Bridie's Favourite Cointreau Xmas Cake Recipe

250g Butter, softened
250g Brown Sugar (or dark brown sugar if you want it richer)
4 eggs
2 Tbsp Orange Marmalade
1.5kg Mixed Dried Fruit (use good quality, you can tell the difference)
225g Plain Flour
75g  Self Raising Flour
2 Tsp Mixed Spice
125ml Cointreau (or Gran Marnier or Triple Sec or try Brandy or Sherry for a different flavour)
Extra Cointreau (or alcohol of your choice) for pouring when cake cooked

Soak the fruit in the cointreau 24hrs before making the cake.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius, if oven is fan forced you may want to reduce this a little, say 10 to 20 degrees.

Prepare a deep 19cm square cake pan or 22cm round cake pan.  Line the base and sides of the pan with baking paper 3 times so it is 3 thicknesses bringing the sides at least 5cm above the top of the pan.  All of this helps with stopping burning.  Cooking spray is great to help with all of this paper sticking.

Beat butter and sugar with mixer until just combined; beat in eggs, one at a time, until just combines.  Mixture may look curdled but it will come together in the end.

Scrape this mixture into a large bowl; add marmalade and the fruit (with any excess alcohol left).  Mix this thoroughly with one hand.  Sift flours and spice over mixture and mix well with your hand - all good xmas cakes and puddings are mixed by hand!

Drop dollops of the mixture into the corners of the pan - this will hold the paper in place.  Spread the remaining mixture into the pan.

Drop the cake pan onto the bench to settle the cake and remove any large air bubbles.  Level the surface of the cake with a wet metal spatula or spoon.

Bake cake in the oven for about 3 hours.  Skewer should come out relatively clean, no uncooked mixture.  If during the cooking process the cake is getting too dark on top put foil loosely over the top of the cake.  Also turn the cake a few times during cooking.

Remove the cake brush or pour over extra alcohol (depends on your taste) and cover tightly with foil and leave on the bench, if pouring put skewer holes first for the alchohol to soak into.  Allow 24hrs for the cake to come to room temp.  This cake can be frozen up to 12 months or wrapped tightly in cling wrap then foil then kept in a cool dark place for up to 3 months.  If using over the next few weeks keep in a tin or tupperware container.

Decorating is left up to your imagination!

Good luck to all who try this recipe, I hope you like it.

Enjoy!
Bridie