Stir up Sunday

This year I'm making gifts for some of our family. This isn't necessarily a cost-saving move, in fact the ingredients for a Christmas cake really mount up - especially with all the alcohol involved! Instead it is more to provide something that can be consumed and won't lie around collecting clutter or being donated to a local charity shop in the new year. I hope they appreciate all the effort that has gone into creating the goodies I've got planned.

So, I thought I'd start with a Christmas cake. There is no more traditional time to make it then Sunday 23rd November; Stir up Sunday. This is the final Sunday before advent and traditionally the day that Christmas puddings would be made and stirred by all the family, making wishes as you went round.

As this is my first year attempting my own Christmas cake I scoured the internet for a simple but tasty recipe and found James Martin's Make & Mature Cake. It appealed to me as it was a simple case of buying a bag of mixed fruit (picked up on offer for £2 for a kg in Waitrose) instead of chopping lots of little pieces, maybe I'll do that next year when I'm a bit more experienced in the world of fruit cakes!

I actually doubled the mix and made 4 7" cakes. They aren't massively tall but think they'll look great in a few weeks time once iced, for now though they are staying naked so I can continue to feed them. I made these in two batches as I only had two tins and there was no way I had a pan large enough for 2kg of fruit at once.

Ingredients (for four cakes):

• 2kg mixed food
• zest and juice of 2 lemons
• zest and juice of 2 oranges
• 300ml sherry + extra for feeding (my alcohol of choice as it's not as potent as whiskey)
• 500g butter, softened
• 400g light brown sugar
• 350g plain flour
• 200g ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 100g flaked almonds (didn't double this)
• 8 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Place your fruit, lemon orange, sherry, butter and brown sugar in a large pan. Bring it to the boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 30 minutes.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Heat your oven to 150c - this is a low, slow cook. Grease your tins, making a large 'collar' from greaseproof paper, line the base too.
3. Once cooled a little add the remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly until all combined, make a wish too.
   
4. Divide the mix between the tins and place in the oven for 2 hours. I didn't find the time decreased for cooking, I suspect the original recipe required longer than 2 hours.
   
5. Remove from the oven and skewer all over, spoon over a tablespoon of sherry. Leave to cool completely in the tin before removing all paper and wrapping in cling film.
   
6. Repeat for the next two cakes!

I'll keep you updated on the feeding and icing process. Wish me luck!