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chocolate christmas cake

Chocolate Christmas Cake

  Rating 0.0

Prep

30 mins

Bake

2.5-3 hrs

Serves

Difficulty

Medium
chocolate christmas cake

About

For a great alternative to the traditional English crumb, try Eric Lanlard's Chocolate and Orange Christmas Cake. This is still packed full of luscious dried fruits and festive spices, but benefits from the delicious addition of orange liqueur and rich dark chocolate.

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Instructions
Ingredients
Reviews
Step 1

Put raisins into bowl and cover with orange liqueur. Cover the bowl and set aside for 24 hours.

Step 2

Preheat oven to 150C/gas mark 2. Grease and line a 22cm spring form cake tin.

Step 3

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. If the mixture looks like it is going to split, add a small amount of flour.

Step 4

Melt chocolate in a bowl over hot water and add it to butter, sugar and egg mixture. Sift in the flour, mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg, and stir. Add lemon juice and orange liqueur, and mix together.

Step 5

Gently fold in the soaked raisins, sultanas, peel, cherries, walnuts and hazelnuts. Spoon the mix into your greased and lined spring form cake tin.

Step 6

Bake the cake for 2 and a half to 3 hours, depending on your oven. Test whether cakes are cooked with a skewer - if it comes out clean the cake is done. Cool on a wire rack, then spray with more alcohol and wrap in cling film until ready to decorate.

Step 7

Decorate the top with fruits and nuts. Warm apricot gelee and, using a pastry brush, glaze fruits and nuts. Add chocolate fans and highlight with a gold leaf.

Ingredients – 17 items

Serving

1

For the Cake

Raisins

Raisins

golden

200g
Currants

Sultanas

seedless

200g

Mixed peel

100g

Orange liqueur

plus extra for soaking

50ml
Butter

Unsalted butter

200g
Fairtrade Dark Brown Soft

Tate & Lyle’s Pure Cane Dark Brown Soft Sugar

100g

Molasse sugar

50g
Eggs

Large eggs

3
Flour

Plain flour

sifted

150g
Chocolate

Dark chocolate

good-quality & high cocoa content

175g
Mixed-spice

Ground mixed spice

1tsp
Cinnamon

Ground Cinnamon

1/2tsp
Nutmeg

Ground nutmeg

1/2tsp
Lemon

Lemon

juice

1

Glace cherry

50g
Walnuts

Walnuts

halves

75g
Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts

whole, roasted

75g

For the Decoration

Mixed glace fruits

orange slices, apricot, cherries, etc

Mixed nuts

Mixed nuts

walnuts, pecans, peeled pistachios

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