Mini Christmas Cakes
photo by Izy Hossack
- Ready In:
- 1hr 20mins
- Ingredients:
- 12
- Yields:
-
32 mini cakes
ingredients
- 2 kg mixed dried fruit
- 50 ml dark rum (I buy a miniature bottle of rum)
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 granny smith apple, peeled and grated
- 14.79 ml treacle or 14.79 ml molasses
- 236.59 ml brown sugar, firmly packed (I use dark, muscavado sugar, but normal light brown sugar will do)
- 250 g butter, melted
- 354.88 ml plain flour
- 118.29 ml self-raising flour
- 200 g blanched almonds
- 150 g glace cherries
- 64-72 paper baking cups
directions
- Place mixed fruit into a very large basin.
- Add rum and mix well.
- Cover with plastic wrap and allow to stand overnight.
- The next day, preheat oven to 150°C (300°F) and arrange oven racks to accommodate muffin tins in the centre section of the oven.
- Place 2 muffin cases into each hole of 2 or 3, 12 hole muffin tins.
- One ingredient at a time, add the beaten eggs, grated apple, treacle and sugar to the fruit mixture, mixing well with a wooden spoon after each addition.
- Add cooled, melted butter and sifted flours and mix thoroughly.
- If you're making these instead of a Christmas cake, make sure to let every member of the family have a stir of the mixture while they make a Christmas wish.
- Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, filling to almost full.
- Use the back of a spoon to smooth the top of each cake.
- Press a glace cherry into the centre of each cake and, around each cherry, press in 5 almonds to make ‘petals’- pointy end closest to the cherry.
- Bake, in batches if necessary, at 150°C (300°F) for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean.
- When cooked, remove muffin tins from the oven, remove cakes in their papers from muffin tins and cool on racks.
- When cakes are completely cool, store in airtight tins and keep in a cool place or, if you're in a warm climate, store in the refrigerator.
- Alternatively, wrap each cake, still in its paper, tightly in plastic wrap, pack into plastic freezer bags and freeze.
- Cakes will keep for at least a month if stored correctly or longer if frozen.
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Reviews
-
These mini Christmas Cakes look fantastic! I used brandy (didn't have any rum). My family said they were delicious (I'm gluten-free so couldn't taste them). I've made some as little gifts for my workmates-my youngest daughter is going to come in and give them out for me. I've already started making another batch. The presentation with the 'flower' on top looks great. I think this is a no fail recipe and will become a Christmas regular for us. Thanks Kookaburra for a great recipe :)
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These are absolutely fantastic.I recommend soaking them for longer and feeding them frequently with your favourite alcohol. I used brandy rather than rum as that is what I had in the house. I have a small convection oven which tends to cook things quickly so I set the time for 35 minutes and just left the cakes in the oven. This worked perfectly.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
<p>Above: Slideshow of our garden at Avalon Slideshow of our recent holiday at Woodgate Beach, South-East Queensland, Australia. Hi! I'm Kookaburra, from Australia. First, a promise. I will only post recipes on this site which I've made myself and to which I would personally give a 5 star rating - what you give them is up to you ;-) I look forward to receiving your feedback. If you look at my reviews, they're all 5 stars. That doesn't mean I give 5 stars to every recipe I try. I'm just not interested in giving poor ratings to anyone else's recipe because I accept that different people have different tastes. So, I've decided that I'll only review those recipes which I really love and which I'd make again and recommend to friends. If a recipe meets that criteria - even if it needs a bit of 'tweaking' to match my tastes, I'll give it 5 stars. If not, I'll just delete it from my recipe book and no hard feelings. I'm not advocating this as the 'right' approach. I just decided I needed a consistent strategy for rating and this is mine. I'm passionate about cooking - and eating! What I look for in food is something that 'zings' in the mouth. I like lots of taste - I'm not a big fan of subtlety. I don't often cook recipes exactly as written. I like to experiment and adapt things to my own taste. A retired marketing executive and academic, I live with my elderly (but thoroughly modern) mother in a tiny mountain village at the edge of the rainforest. I'm female, happily single, in my mid-40s and boast the Rubenesque figure of a passionate cook! Avalon, our 'story-book' cottage, overlooks a small lake. As I sit at my computer or work in the kitchen, I'm serenaded by a cacophany of native birds - including a very fat family of kookaburras! We have quite a large property and are lucky to have vegetable gardens and a variety of fruit and nut trees. I look forward to sharing recipes on Recipezaar with family, friends and friends I've yet to meet. last minute flight</p>