Day 1 — Mincemeat Christmas Cake Recipe

As promised, today I am beginning my 'twelve days of Christmas' recipes section on this blog. Over the next twelve days you will get all the recipes that you need to make your Christmas foods fantastic. 

There will be traditional recipes, new recipes and 'cheat' recipes that will allow you to prepare traditional recipes even if you only have a week left until Christmas.

The recipe presented here is one of these 'cheat' recipes. It uses mincemeat to allow you to prepare a Christmas cake even if it's only a few days before Christmas. Indeed, the problem with most Christmas cakes is that they take weeks to mature. However, even if you have not prepared your own Christmas cake, all is not yet lost.

You can actually make a rich fruit Christmas cake based on mincemeat that only needs a few days to mature (a week is best, but this can actually be made just 4 days before Christmas).

Here you can find a link to all the Christmas and all the other Twelve Days of Christmas recipes published on this blog... a true treasure-trove of seasonal dishes.

Mincemeat Christmas Cake Recipe

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

450g (1 lb) mincemeat (either home-made or shop-bought)
240g (2 cups) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g (3/4 cup, packed) dark brown sugar
150g (3/4 cup) butter
180g (2 cups) mixed dried fruit
finely-grated zest of 1 orange
finely-grated zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
120g (1 cup) ground almonds

Method:

To prepare, simply combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine.

Grease a 20cm (8 in) diameter springform cake tin and line with greaseproof (waxed) paper, ensuring the the paper comes up 5cm (2 in) above the sides of the tin.

Wrap a double layer of brown paper around the tin and tie securely with string (this helps prevent the outside of the cake from burning).

Smooth the top, then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 160ºC (320ºF, Gas Mark 3) and bake for about 80 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake emerges cleanly.

Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Wrap in greaseproof (waxed) paper and a sheet of kitchen foil and keep in an air-tight tin. This is best if allowed to matur for 1 week before serving, but can be served within 4 days.

The cake can be served plain, or it can be decorated as you would any Christmas cake (spread over melted marmalade or apricot jam, cover with marzipan [almond paste] and finally cover with icing).

For the effect seen here, cover the cake with white marzipan (almond paste) and decorate with marzipan shapes, then dust with icing sugar. Place under a hot grill (broiler) and allow to colour slightly.

Find more Christmas Recipes on the Celtnet recipes site.

This recipe is adapted, with permission, from the Celtnet Recipes website recipe for Mincemeat Christmas Cake.

UPDATE! My Big Book of Christmas Recipes recipes book has just been published in a completely new and revised edition for Amazon Kindle!

This is the largest collection of traditional and modern Christmas and Christmas-based recipes ever assembled. With over 500 Christmas and Christmas-themed recipes divided into all the classic dish types as well as recipe suggestions on using up those Christmas leftovers.

You get chapters on Christmas baing, the Christmas feast itself, accompaniments, sauces, edible gifts, sweets and candies, puddings, biscuits, cakes, accompaniments and much more.

No only are traditional Christma recipes, but thare are also other classic Christmas dishes sourced from around the globe.

The book finishes with a section on making the most of your Christmas left overs, with everything from using up the last of the turkey and roast vegetables to uses for left-over Christmas pudding and Christmas cake.

Every classic and traditional curry type is dealt with in this ebook! Get you copy today and help this blog and the Celtnet Recipes website keep going.