Every year, Mari Moilanen bakes a cake that sharply divides opinion.
As the name suggests, an English fruitcake has more fruit than dough. Mari Moilanen
An English fruit cake is full of dried fruit. It belongs to the food supplier Mari Moilanen for Christmas.
At the beginning of November, Moilanen starts the Christmas food preparations with this all-time favorite.
– Now we have to get this annual Christmas Eve delicacy, the English Christmas cake, drunk. It is one of my first Christmas preparations, Moilanen states.
Cognac flavors the dried fruits. Mari Moilanen
For him, Christmas simply doesn’t come without this tangy, spicy, alcohol-extracted delicacy. But Moilanen knows that the English fruit cake divides opinion. Some love it, others don’t want to taste even one piece.
– Sometimes I have forgotten to start preparing this cake in time enough, so I have missed out on this wonderful taste pleasure that the English Christmas cake offers. I won’t make this mistake again. You still have time to bake a cake for Christmas, Moilanen encourages.
Moilanen has been making Christmas fruit cake with the same recipe for years.
An English Christmas cake or an English fruit cake is full of dried fruit. There are more of them than the dough itself.
Tip! The non-alcoholic version is prepared a couple of days before Christmas and moistened with tea and apple juice.
English fruit cake
(for 12 people)
175 g raisins
350 g red cocktail cherries
350 g currants
1 1/2 dl cognac (some nutty sherry is also suitable for moistening)
The peel of 2 oranges
250 g room temperature butter
250 g of muscovado sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon of dark syrup
75 g of peeled almonds
275 g wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
brandy for moistening
1. Grate the peel of the oranges into a fine grater. Measure the dried fruit into a bowl and add cognac. Let it season for a couple of hours.
2. Grease a loose base cake pan with a diameter of approx. 22 cm. Put baking paper on the bottom and also line the edge of the pan with a strip of baking paper. Grease the surface of the baking paper.
3. Grind the almonds. Measure butter, muscovado sugar, eggs, syrup and ground almonds. Mix with an electric mixer. Add the flour to which you have mixed the spices in batches.
4. Finally, add the soaked fruits and the brandy used as the soaking broth.
5. Spoon the dough into the pan and bake in a 140-degree oven for 4-4.5 hours, until the stick inserted into the cake no longer sticks to the dough. If the surface of the cake darkens too much, cover it with foil. Let the cake cool in its pan.
6. When the cake has cooled, poke holes in the surface with e.g. a grill stick and spoon a little cognac on top. Remove the cake from the pan, but leave the baking papers in place and wrap the cake once more in the baking paper and then in the foil. Store in a cool place and moisten with a couple of tablespoons of cognac every couple of weeks.
2 days before eve:
3 tablespoons of apricot jam
approx. 700 g of marzipan
powdered sugar for rolling
1. Two days before the eve, take the cake out of the fridge and turn the smooth side up. Place the cake on the base as you want to serve it at Christmas. Spread the heated apricot jam on the surface of the cake.
2. Roll the marzipan on the powdered sugar into a thin sheet that covers the entire cake. Wrap the marzipan sheet around the rolling pin and the sheet over the cake and trim the edges. Cover the cake lightly with baking paper and let the marzipan dry for 1-2 days. The surface of the marzipan needs to dry so that the piquere stays on it, so only light baking paper to cover the cake at this stage.
1 day before eve:
Royal icing:
3 egg whites
500 g powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1. Prepare the piker by whipping the egg whites until well foamed. Then add powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time and continue to beat on low speed. Finally, add the lemon juice and beat until the mixture is thick and glossy.
2. Lift the frosting onto the surface of the cake and spread it on the edges of the cake. Make nice snow peaks on the surface of the cake, so the surface of the cake can remain jagged.
3. When the surface of the cake has dried a little, cover the cake lightly.