The traditional, time-tested spiced Christmas cake is sugar, spice and all things nice. This recipe from Christopher Lester, Executive Chef of Caesars Bluewaters Dubai, uses dates for a UAE touch, and lets the fruits soak for two days to create a fragrantly delicious cake. There’s also cocoa powder for the chocolate lovers out there.
Lots of cinnamon and ginger too - meaning your palate's going on a festive adventure with each slice. Dig right in.
Spiced Christmas Cake
Makes: 1 square cake
Prep time: 15 mins plus 48 hours for presoaking
Cook time: 1 hour
Ingredients
360gm butter
25gm apples, (de-cored)
280gm flour
15gm baking powder
2-spice mix (cinnamon and ginger), to taste
350gm brown sugar
2 egg yolks
200gm winter berries
40gm Valrhona cocoa powder
20gm grapeseed oil
7 whole eggs
50gm demerara sugar
For presoak
30gm mix peels
35gm chopped Medjool date (you can substitute this with any other type of date)
25gm chopped Bramley apple (or any cooking apple)
25gm sultana raisins
33gm orange peel
20gm dried cranberries
500ml orange juice
5 cinnamon sticks
½ root fresh ginger (peeled and chopped)
To serve
Marzipan (store bought and rolled out to about quarter inch thickness), vanilla light custard, hibiscus and rose jelly (or any fruit jelly) and crystallised redcurrants or cherries (dusted in icing sugar)
Marinate method:
Mix the ingredients for the presoak 48 hours before preparing the cake.
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven at 180C. Grease the base of a flat cake tin.
2. Cut the butter into cubes and roughly chop the apples. Add both to the presoaked mix, and blend until combined.
3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and 2-spice mix and add to the first mix, along with all the remaining ingredients except the whole eggs and demerara sugar. Gently fold in together.
4. At room temperature add the eggs one by one and combine until you get a smooth mixture. Then add demerara sugar and combine. Pour the mixture into the cake tin until ¾ full. Bake for 50/60 minutes.
5. Remove from oven, let it rest 10 minutes, remove cake from tin and let cool completely before last step.
6. Cover with rolled out marzipan. Cut into slices and serve with vanilla custard, jelly and redcurrants.
- Recipe courtesy: Christopher Lester, Executive Chef, Caesars Bluewaters Dubai
