Rich Christmas cake

My Christmas cake this year is simple to prepare and inviting. It has the traditional ingredients of the season, like dried fruit, with a twist (glacé ginger and cherries) and beautifully finished off on top.

You need: 250 g of flour, 150 g of golden granulated sugar, 3 eggs, 70 g of butter, half a tsp of bicarbonate of soda, one tsp of baking powder, half a glass of milk, 50 g of dried cherries, 5 glacé cherry halves, 50 g of cut mixed peel, some drops of Madagascan vanilla extracts.

To decorate: 100 g of dark chocolate, 5 glacé cherries halves, one tsp of icing sugar and gold and silver sprinkles.

Soften the butter in a bowl using a wooden spoon, add the sugar and the yolks of the eggs. Mix well then add half of the flour, the dried cherries, mixed peel and five glacé cherries. Combine the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder with the milk and pour it in the mixture. Whip the egg whites until stiff and then add to the mixture along with the rest of the flour. Pour the mixture in a round greased tin and bake for 30 minutes at 180 °C.

Let it cool and prepare the decoration in the meantime. Set five glacé cherries halves on the cake, melt the dark chocolate in a pan and pour it on the top of the cake covering the glacé cherries halves using a tea spoon. Add gold and silver sprinkles and dust some icing sugar to give a snow effect.

Alternative recipe:

Use the same ingredients but with different kinds of dried fruit, e.g. 50 g of dried blueberries, 50 g of candied orange peel cut in cubes and 50 g of glacé ginger. To decorate the cake, use the glacé ginger and/or the candied orange peel. You can use dark chocolate to finish and/or white chocolate.

I wish you all a very yummy Christmas!