‘Ding dong merrily on high……’

As I sit here and eat a piece of this here cake, Christmas is but short distance away. Luckily for me it would appear the bulk of the present buying has been done and organised to its various hiding placed around the house (how we recover them though presents (pardon the pun..) another issue….

Time is ever precious at this time of year and as our lives seem to be squeezed on a daily basis, it comes as a welcome tonic (mines with vodka)  to find a gluten free Christmas fruit cake that is both easy to make and bake and similarly easy to decorate.

I was lucky enough to have been given a packet of this gluten free Christmas Fruit Cake Mix from the lovely people at Delicious Alchemy. And it really is easy to make 🙂

Forgive me DA but I lifted this straight from your website – I have though linked it straight back to your lovely, helpful website.  I couldn’t see the point in reinventing the wheel. A couple of things to note, I didn’t use the orange and I used a tad more brandy in the cake – oops my hand slipped…

For clarity I used a square 7″ cake tin which isn’t overly clear in the original method/recipe.

You’ll need:

• 1 x 650g Delicious Alchemy Christmas Fruit Cake Mix
• 110g of soft unsalted butter (or dairy free alternative)
• 2 large eggs
• 75ml of brandy or orange juice
• Zest of one orange (optional)  

Before you get mixing, preheat the oven to 160C/140C for fan-assisted ovens.  Line the base and sides of a 7 inch baking tin with greaseproof paper. Make sure the paper sticks out 2.5cm (about an inch) above the rim of the tin.

In a large bowl, mix the butter (or dairy free alternative) and zest (if using) then add in 45ml of the brandy or orange juice. Whisk the eggs separately and then add to the bowl along with the dry cake mix.

Mix together for 2½ minutes. You can pop it all in a mixer if that’s easier.

Once it has all come together, put the mix into your prepared tin and bake for 1 hour 45 minutes. I would suggest that you smooth the surface of the cake mix down to get an even finish once cooked. It also helps when ready for icing.

Once baked to perfection, allow to cool for 20 minutes, then pierce the cake several times with a skewer and pour on the remaining 30ml of brandy or orange juice until it is all absorbed.

Wrap up well in greaseproof, tin foil and cling film and store.

Should you have the time left.. unwrap carefully, turn over, pierce the base of the cake again and ‘feed the cake’ a little more brandy.  Although if you have some calvados lying around this is just as tasty…

When you are ready to cover the choice is indeed yours.  For better use of time I used Dr Oetker Marzipan and Dr Oetker Regal Icing . Remove both from their packets, knead the marzipan until it’s a little more pliable and roll out until your decide thickness, brush the top of the cake with apricot jam and cover with the marzipan. Use the base of the square cake tin as a guide for size and shape. Brush the marzipan with a little more of the apricot jam, and repeat the process with the Regal Icing.

Now you can eat this (once decorated to your liking) as one whole cake, use as a Christmas Day centre piece and slice as required, but for something a little different I cut the iced cake into 8 ‘slices’ and decorated each slice as I desired. Just because.

And because I was able to plan a little ahead I was able to feed the cake twice – once a week over the two since I baked it.  You still have time…

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