This cookbook Jane Grigson's English Food was given to me by my dear friend Camilla. We made Christmas cakes together before I moved to VT. The Brits say that the less flour you use, the more authentic it is.
Here is what Jane says about the recipe:
This is the recipe I always use these days for Christmas and special birthday cakes. Even if you make it just beforehand and cannot leave it to mature, it tastes good. Unless you like seeding and chopping raisins, and washing and drying the other fruit, I suggest you buy those bags of mixed fruit and peel sold by the chain groceries. No one could tell the difference.
Christmas Cake
1 1/2 lb mixed dried fruit*
4 oz blanched, slivered almonds
4 oz chopped peel
4 oz glace cherries, well-rinsed then quartered
10 oz. plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
grated rind of a lemon
1 tsp vanilla essence
8 oz lightly salted butter
8 oz soft brown sugar, light or dark
1 T black treacle
4 eggs
1/2 t bicarbonate of soda
1 T milk
Brandy
Mix fruit, almonds, peel, and cherries in a huge bowl. Turn them well and add the flour, spices, and lemon rind. Cream the butter and sugar thoroughly, then add the vanilla essence and treacle. Still beating, incorporate the eggs, and stir in the fruit, and flour. Finally, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the milk, and stir in thoroughly. Add brandy by the spoonful, until you have a soft dropping consistency.
Turn into an 8" cake tin lined with a double layer of brown paper (brown bag), then a layer of Bakewell paper. Hollow out the top slightly. Bake at Mark 1 - 140 C (275 F) for 3 1/2 hours, then test with a larding needle or a skewer. Remove the cake from the oven when it is done, and leave to cool in its tin. Next day peel off the Bakewell and brown paper. Wrap in fresh greaseproof paper, then put it into an airtight tine (or in foil). The usual thing is to keep the cake for at least a month before icing it, and to sprinkle it occasionally with more brandy.
To finish off the cake for Christmas, you will need marzipan and icing. Do not buy the marzipan ready made - your own may not look so yellow as it does in the shop, but it will taste much better. Moreover, you can reduce the sweetness by putting in less sugar.
* The first year we were in VT I used dried blueberries in honor of the lovely, wild blues that cover the northern part of the state.
Almond Paste or Marzipan
8 oz icing sugar**
1 lb ground almonds
1 large egg
3-4 t lemon juice
Glaze
1 T apricot jam
1 T water
Sift the icing sugar and mix it with the almonds. Beat the egg thoroughly, then add the lemon juice and the dry ingredients. Use a wooden spoon to beat everything to a firm paste, then knead it on a board ot formica surface, which has been sprinkled with icing sugar. (Incidentally, if you do not agree with me that most almond paste is too sweet, add another 1/2 lb of sugar and use two medium eggs instead of one large one.)
Slice the top from the cake to make it even, then turn it upside down and put on a wire rack. Boil the hame and water in a small pan, sieve it into a bowl and while still hot, brush it over the top of the cake (that is, over what was the bottom).
Set aside a third of the almond paste, and roll out the rest to a circle just a little larger than the cake - do this on a sheet of clean greaseproof paper and use the cake tin as a guide. Press the glazed side of the cake down on to the circle of almond marzipan; reverse it so that you now have the greaseproof paper on top, then the marzipan and then the cake - remove the paper and smooth the marzipan down over the sides. Measure the depth of the cake and its circumference. Roll out the remaining marzipan to these measurements, again on a sheet of greeasproof paper. Brush the cake sides with apricot glaze and roll it slowly along the strip of marzipan. Pat everything into place, closing the cracks and so on, and replace the cake on its rack. Leave for two days before icing it.
Royal Icing
2 sm egg whites
2 t lemon juice
1 lb icing sugar**
Whisk the eggs until they are white and foamy, but not stiff. Stir in the lemon juice, then the sugar, which should first be sieved. Do this bit by bit, using a wooden spoon. When everything is mixed together, continue to beat the mixture until it is a dazzling white. Cover the basin and leave it for an hour or two before using it.
To ice the cake, put a bowl of hot water beside it. Put about half the icing on the cake and spread it about with a palette knife which you have dipped in the water. It should be hot and wet, but not wet enough to soak the cake and ruin the icing. Cover the cake all over, then put on the remaining icing, either roughly to make a snowy effect, or in an elegant design with the aid of a forcing bag and nozzles.
**confectioner's sugar
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