Mulled Wine Fruit and Nut Christmas Cake: Make-Ahead Fruitcake

"This is one of my favourite Christmas cake recipes & is usually the one I end up making. It is a make-ahead cake which gets better for maturing a while. It's very fruity & has a delectable mulled wine taste to it - the nuts make it a very special cake too. I don't usually marzipan or ice this cake, although I have done when under pressure from my family - who want a "Traditional Cake with all the little Father Christmas figures & Robins on top!!!" It is nice with a fruit and nut glazed topping - as well as just being served plain with a festive frill around it! I will post more photos when I have decided how I am going to decorate it this year!"
 
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photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
Ready In:
48hrs 1min
Ingredients:
21
Yields:
12 slices
Serves:
12
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ingredients

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directions

  • TWO DAYS BEFORE YOU BAKE:

  • Gently heat up the port with the strips of orange peel & all the mulled wine spices tied up in a muslin or cloth bag; you will need a large roomy saucepan as you will be adding the fruit to it later.
  • Bring it to the boil and then take off the heat and allow to cool slightly.
  • Add all the fruit, prunes, peel & nuts to the mulled wine port mixture, stir it well and cover with a lid.
  • Leave at room temperature, unless you live in a very hot climate in which case you will need to refrigerate it, for 2 days. I have left this for up to 4 days with no adverse effects!
  • THE DAY YOU BAKE THE CAKE:

  • Pre-heat oven to 160 C or 320°F.
  • Grease and double line with bakng paper/parchment a loose bottom deep cake tin; I used a 8" diameter round tin with high sides.
  • Wrap the outside of the cake tin with a double layer of brown paper or baking paper/parchment & tie with string - it stops the cake browning too quickly or too much and IS worth the effort!
  • Beat the butter and sugar together until light & fluffy.
  • Add the flour bit by bit with the beaten eggs gradually - mix well in between each flour & egg addition. This stops it curdling.
  • Drain the fruit & nuts - any excess port can be kept for future soakings! Discard the mulled wine bag & the strips of orange peel.
  • Add the fruit and nuts to the cake mixture & mix well.
  • Add the spices along with the grated peel of one orange and mix well with a wooden spoon.
  • Spoon the the cake mixture into the prepared tin and level the top.
  • Make a slight dip in the middle to allow for rising unevenly.
  • Bake for 30 minutes and then turn the oven down to 150 C or 300 F and bake for a further 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
  • Leave the cake to cool in the tin.
  • Remove from the tin and keep stored in an airtight container - well wrapped in the baking paper/parchment until Christmas.
  • Decorate it with traditional marzipan & icing or a fruit and nut glaze - OR just remove from the paper, decorate with a frill and serve it from an attractive cake platter!
  • In Yorkshire where I come from, we would eat a slice of Christmas cake with a slice of Wensleydale Cheese!

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Reviews

  1. This has become my go to Christmas cake recipe! I have used it over the past 5 years and as such tweaked it a little to friends and family’s preferences. As such I soak the fruit in cider rather than port, and batch cook 4x as much to keep up with demand for this gorgeous cake!
     
  2. Excellent! Easy to make, and it turned out lovely and moist. I left out the prunes and the almonds - but that is just a personal choice. Will certainly be making it again.
     
  3. Very nice fruit cake! I made this a few weeks ago, without the alcohol for a childrens birthday party so soaked everything in apple juice instead. I still have people asking me for the recipe now. :D
     
  4. This fruitake breaks the mold and has become a family tradition!!! I made this cake with my available resources so the cake was not an exact replica but a delicious base. I mulled a bottle of Port we purchased in Quebec, with a purchased mulling mix. Fruit was soaked for two days, dried prunes,golden and dark raisins, dried tart cherries, fresh orange peel, and dried cranberries. Instead of almonds I added roasted pecans to the batter before baking. I'm not sure what was meant by mixed spice but I added a teaspoon of allspice to the batter. A buttered bundt pan was used to bake with no paper lining, a pan of boiling water was placed on the bottom rack of the oven. The cake was done after 90 minutes. I mailed a chunk to my mother in Iowa and my Aunt in Illinois. We will eat our fruitcake with sweetened mascarpone cheese!
     
  5. This cake is fabulous! Our family has made fruitcake for generations and we all loved this one. We'll make it again this year. I have served it to a number of dinner guests, as well, and all of them wanted the recipe. I soaked the fruit for 4 days in advance, and I recommend the longer soaking period, if you have the time. I used a tub pan for baking, and shortened the baking time just a little, and all turned out just fine. The cake is easy to make, keeps well and for a very long period of time, if stored in an air-tight container. Even people who say they don't like fruitcake said that they really liked this cake!
     
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Tweaks

  1. Soak the fruit in warm cider rather than port for a slightly more mellow flavour
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p><strong><span>The sunflowers in the field behind my house in SW France:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Sunflowers src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/DSCN8221.jpg alt=Sunflowers width=640 height=480 /><br /><strong><span><br /><br />I am British (English-Scottish), but I was born in South Africa and have lived all over the world, including Hong Kong, Germany, Cyprus, USA &amp; Singapore. I have also been very fortunate to have travelled extensively over the years.........I still have wanderlust! <br /><br />I used to be an English Literature &amp; Art History teacher &amp; lecturer; before that, I trained and worked as a Graphic Designer for many years. I now live in France with my husband &amp; my daughter who has just started university in September 2006. We also have one very chatty Burmese cat Willow, who allows us to live with her here! (I used to have three cats, I recently lost Monty, a beautiful seal point Siamese and before that, Rama, who was a debonair blue point Siamese cat - I would love to have another Siamese cat or cats in the future!)</span></strong></p> <p><em><strong><span>This is my Burmese Cat, Willow, sunning herself on the log pile in the kitchen garden:</span></strong></em></p> <p><strong><img title=My src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/ABaconButtyandSundryFoodPhotos34.jpg alt=My width=640 height=480 /></strong></p> <p><strong><span>Here is my lovely Monty, a seal point Siamese, and Willow, sitting&nbsp;in the kitchen garden last year, and a few months before Monty died; he was 18yrs old:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Monty src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/AbsolutelySinfulStickyToffeePudding.jpg alt=Monty width=640 height=480 />My</p> <p><strong><span>This is my wonderful old boy, Rama, a blue-point Siamese, who died when he was 20yrs old - excuse the old and much sellotaped photo:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Rama src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/Rama1stOctober2004164.jpg alt=Rama width=517 height=639 /></p> <p><strong><span>My favourite pastimes are: reading, writing, painting &amp; drawing, photography, gardening, anything creative, walking, travelling, dining out and of course COOKING! I love all types of cuisine, but especially Traditional British - and NO it is NOT all bad!! I particularly love food associated with the changing seasons plus traditional feasts &amp; festivals, as well as Slow Cooking. I also enjoy French &amp; North African cuisine, come to think of it, there isn't much I don't like! <br /><br />My husband &amp; I run a Chambres D'Hotes, (Bed and Breakfast) called Auberge de la Fontaine here in beautiful South West France; we specialise in Gourmet Food &amp; Wine Breaks, French Antiques &amp; Restoration courses, French Language courses and French Cookery classes. Our home is completely furnished with Antique French furniture that we have rescued &amp; restored ourselves. Our charming village has one of the oldest Churches in the region &amp; it is famous for its connection with the St.Jacques de Compostella Pilgrimage route, as well as being within the Cognac &amp; Bordeaux wine growing area. <br /><br />We have a wonderful garden where we grow ALL of our own herbs and most of our fruit and vegetables. I specialise in rare, unusual and old-fashioned herbs, which I grow in our walled garden. As well as growing herbs, I also grow many different varieties of lavender, old-fashioned shrub roses and heirloom fruit and vegetables. <br /><br />We have lived overseas for many, many years now - but we both still love going home to Northern England, near Scarborough &amp; York, to visit our family &amp; friends. We also love indulging in dining out when we are there, in a wide variety of EXCELLENT Gastro-Pubs that we have in North Yorkshire; and popping in to have a Pint of REAL ENGLISH ALE in our local pub is a always a must!! <br /></span></strong></p> <p><br /><a href=http://photobucket.com/images/merci%20beaucoup target=_blank><img src=http://i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp287/vi-vie15/Merci/hb09izl7.gif border=0 alt=merci /></a> <br /><br /><strong><span>A Message to all who make and review my recipes! I try very hard to reply to EACH and EVERYONE of you who kindly makes, reviews and photographs my recipes! However, sometimes I am so busy in the B and B, and with other things, that I may be late in sending a personal thank you message, and sometimes I forget completely! I would just like to thank you ALL in advance, and just in case I am late or forgetful in sending a personal thanks. I am always very humbled by anyone who chooses to make one of my recipes, and I love reading the reviews and seeing the beautiful photos that are posted. Merci beaucoup encore! <br /><br />A note about my recipes. All of my posted recipes, whether they be my own concoctions or adaptations from a book or a famous chef, have been tried and tested at least once, by ME! I try to make sure that I am the guinea pig and not you! However, if there is anything you would like ask me about one of my recipes, or a query that I may be able to help you with, please do write and I will try to answer your question as soon as possible. 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