Packed full of rich fruit, nuts and flavour, this classic Christmas cake recipe is quick and easy to bake.
Serves 16-20
Preparation time: 45 minutes, plus cooling
Bake time: 2 hours, 10 minutes
You will also need: a 20cm springform cake tin, base and sides greased and double-lined with baking parchment.
Ingredients
- 150g Plain flour
- 50g Self-raising flour
- 1tsp Mixed spice
- 1tsp Ground cinnamon
- ½tsp Ginger
- ½tsp Ground cloves
- ½tsp Freshly grated nutmeg
- 100g Ground almonds
- 4 Medium eggs, lightly beaten
For the nut and dried fruit mixture:
- 100g Mixed nuts, roughly chopped
- 200g Raisins
- 200g Billington’s Natural glace cherries, halved
- 100g Glace ginger
- 100g Ready-to-eat stoned dates, roughly chopped
- 100g Cut mixed peel
- 150ml Apple juice
- 175g Unsalted butter
- 200g Billington’s Unrefined Dark Muscovado Sugar
- 2tbsp Black treacle
- Billington’s Golden Icing Sugar, for decoration
Method
- Preheat the oven to 150°C or gas mark 2. For the nut and dried fruit mixture, put all the ingredients into a large pan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar dissolves and butter has melted. Bring up to the boil, then remove from the heat and set aside.
- Into a large bowl, add the flours, spices and ground almonds, then stir in the eggs, followed by the nut and fruit mixture. Pour into the prepared tin and level out with a spoon.
- Bake in the oven for 2 hours, or until the top is both golden and a skewer comes out clean when inserted through the centre (if necessary, cook for a further 10-15 minutes) springy to the touch. Transfer on to a wire rack and allow to cool completely in the tin. Once cool, remove the cake from the tin and place on to a large plate or stand (or wrap in baking paper, followed by a layer of foil and store for up to three days until ready to serve)
- To decorate, use a star-shaped stencil or similar placed in the centre of the top of the cake, and dust with icing sugar.