Prep
2 HRBake
3.5 hoursServes
8 to 10Difficulty
Hard About
Full of the tastiest, richest Christmas ingredients: brandy, marzipan, cranberries and red wine, the title of this cake says it all!
Preheat the oven to 140°C/120° Fan, 275°F, Gas Mark 1 with the shelf set on the middle.
You will also need a 20cm (8”) round cake tin, greased and the base and sides lined with a double thickness of baking parchment, a 25.5cm (10”) round cake board, a snowflake plunger cutter set, ribbon and pins.
Combine the port or wine, orange juice and zest, spice and vanilla in a pan. Bring to the boil, simmer for 3-4 minutes then add the raisins, cranberries, prunes, cherries, peel and nuts. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool.
TOP TIP
Rub the dried fruit in a little flour before putting it into the mix - this helps the fruit stick to the cake batter, preventing it from sinking.
In a mixing bowl cream the butter, Tate & Lyle Dark Soft Brown and Light Muscovado Sugars and the Lyle’s Treacle until soft. Add the flour, the eggs one by one, and salt and mix well until smooth. Stir in the fruit mixture.
Spoon into the tin, level the surface and make a gentle hollow in the middle. Bake for 3 ½ hours or until a fine skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
Cool the cake for 30 minutes, turn out onto a rack to cool completely and peel off the paper. Poke holes in the cake with a fine skewer and drip 2 tablespoons of brandy over the top. Repeat every day until the brandy is used up. Wrap in foil in between and store in an airtight container.
Transfer the cake to the board.
Heat the jam and 1 tablespoon water in a pan for 2-3 minutes, then brush all over the cake.
Roll out the marzipan on a surface dusted with Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar to slightly larger than the cake. Cover the cake and cut away the excess. One day later, repeat with the fondant.
Thinly reroll the excess fondant. Stamp out snowflakes with the plungers and leave to dry for 2 hours.
Wind the ribbon around the base of the cake, cut to fit and secure with pins.
Mix 1 tablespoon Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar with a drop of water to make a ‘glue’ and use to stick the snowflakes onto the cake.
Ingredients – 22 items
1
Red wine
Fruity
Orange
Juiced & zested
Mixed spice
Vanilla extract
Raisins
Dried cranberries
Prunes
Roughly chopped
Glace cherry
Halved, rinsed, dried & finely chopped
Chopped candied peel
Blanched almonds
Roughly chopped
Butter
Unsalted, room temperature
Tate & Lyle Fairtrade Dark Soft Brown Cane Sugar
Fairtrade Tate & Lyle Light Muscovado Sugar
Tate & Lyle’s Black treacle
Self raising flour
Large eggs
Salt
Brandy
Apricot jam
Fairtrade Tate & Lyle Icing Sugar
Marzipan
Fondant Icing Sugar
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