Everything is going retro these days, here is a Retro Christmas Cake recipe with an old fashioned Icing recipe to boot. I usually make a boiled fruit cake around Christmas time and bake with almonds on the top. Thinking about it, I make the same boiled cake all year round. This retro recipe is full of flavour and a real treat.
Rich Christmas Cake
- 800gm sultanas
- 225gms raisins chopped coarsely
- 125gm currants
- 110gm mixed peel
- 200gm glazed cherries halved
- 2 tablespoons orange marmalade
- 180ml dark rum
- 250gm butter softened
- 1 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
- 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
- 220gm firmly packed light brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 300gm plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 2 teaspoons mixed spice
- Combine fruit, marmalade and 1/2 cup of rum in large bowl, cover and stand overnight.
- Preheat oven to 150deg. Line cake tin/tins with baking paper, extending up over the sides.
- Beat butter, rinds and sugar in smaller bowl until combined
- Beat in eggs one at a time until well combined
- Mix butter mixture into the fruit mixture and stir until well combined
- Place mixture into baking tin/tins and bake for 1 1/2 hours, until cooked.
- Brush hot cakes with remaining rum
- Cover with foil and stand overnight in tins to cool
- Ice with the following icing mixture
Icing Vintage Australian from 1953
- 3 lb pure icing sugar
- 3 oz liquid glucose
- 2 egg whites
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- red and green food colouring
- Reserve half of the egg white
- Place icing sugar in bowl and drop the remaining egg white into the centre
- Add melted glucose, lemon juice and vanilla
- Work the mix, sides and front until this forms a smooth paste
- Lift onto a board that has been dusted with icing sugar
- Knead until the mixture has absorbed enough icing sugar to hold its shape
- Cut off a small portion for decoration
- Roll the balance with rolling pin, until you have a 1/2 in thick square
- Brush the cake with the remaining egg white
- Lift the icing onto the cake and with sugar coated hands, mould into the shape of the cake
- Trim the excess icing from the bottom of the cake
- Divide the remaining icing and colour red and green
- Roll and shape to decorate the cake with red and green