Made a christmas cake yesterday.......first for quite a few years.     I buy one most years but thought that I would make one for a change
(much nicer than shop ones) and I will have plenty of time to spike it with whisky!!!!!   Do any on you make your own?

We always make our own Christmas pud - also much nicer than shop ones!

We make our own Christmas cakes (hubby's the only one who eats it - the Boy and I don't like fruit cake that much), mincemeat and puddings. Delia's recipes for mincemeat and puddings are great!

My step-dad makes a Christmas Cake every year - he nurtures it like a baby over the months and its pretty potent stuff!!!  :D

uh christmas cake . my brithdays boxing day guess what i get a slice of :P funny thing is the house is always decorated with lovely sparkley things for my brithday :D

I have made my own Christmas cake for the past 30 years ;) It is my ex Mother in laws recipe...very plain but tasty (or at least I am told it is...I don;t eat it LOL)

Spike mine with brandy by the way ;)

Always make mine - tho' often we don't eat it until the next Christmas :D I liberally spike mine with Metaxa. Thereby hangs a tale :) When the children were small, we had foreign students boarding in the summer holidays. One year we had a Greek girl. She was very nice and her parents had saved up to send her to this expensive language school for a month because jobs in Greece were very dependent on speaking English. Her father was a long distance lorry driver and several times during the girl's stay his lorry would pull up outside our house with all her family inside (they would have a load for Leeds or somewhere like that). Every time that they came they brought a bottle of 5 star Metaxa :D :D We don't drink brandy, but it has been religiously put in our Christmas cakes ever since :D

Daisy

Make mine every year, don't like shop bought ones.  Haven't made it yet but will next week.  Have made the Chrissy pud though!

Sue

Excuse my ignorance, but is this how long it takes to prepare / make, 79 days?

You can make it however long before Christmas you like :) However, the longer the better - gives it time ti mature, especially if you 'feed' it with spirits :D I have successfully kept a cake for over a year and it tasted just as good :D

Daisy

They need to mature for a month, then be fed weekly for another month, then icing takes a couple of days ...

Wow, I hope they're appreciated then and not just scoffed and gone in an instant!  :D

Christmas cake seems to be one of those cakes that people either like or hate :) Three out of four in my family love it :) It's difficult to eat too much of it in one go tho'. If we have family for Christmas, then I ice it - but if it's just us then I don't bother as most of the icing ends up in the bin, as we find it too sweet :) (I love the marzipan tho')

Daisy

Yes I make Christmas cakes to, it end up normally that my mother wants me to make her work pals one to, last year ended up making 11.  Not this year 6 is my limit, I start mine mid October, mature them up for 3 weeks then top them up twice weekly with Brandy.. what a preservative....LOL lovely and moist, roll on Christmas ...LOL

My OH makes the christmas puddings and cake - he and daughter no.2 eat the stuff, but I and daughter no 1 cannot stand it. He is very particular about the ingredients and usually makes the cake with Whiskey. He usually adds stout to the pudding. the puddings are made alreay as we made one for a friend to take back to Germany with her for Christmas.

When my mother made the cakes and puddings it was tradition in out house that everyone living in the house stirred the mixture at least once for good luck.

Yes I make our christmas cakes including one for my Mum and Dad! We usually eat one before christmas tho' :D that's the 'taster'.I use a recipe called Grandmother's Pound Cake and spike it liberally with cointreau :D
I now buy my christmas pudds tho' from Thorntons,yummy!
Jacqueline :)

I make my own too, and usually several more for friends and family.  Years ago on the Good Food programme on TV there was a recipe for an easy cake, which could be made much closer to christmas and still be moist and boozy -  gave it a try and have been using that recipe ever since.  It's an "all in one"mix, so no creaming/folding.  And you add brandy, sherry and guiness!  Raffled one in aid of Rescue last year, decorated wiht sugar paste Yankees in santa hats, and raised over £100. :)
bye
Gwen

I have not made my own Christmas Cake since I was at school 38 years ago, at first I had a brilliant mother in law from being 17, then when I was divorce mother in law still kept me supplied and she had cakes to die for, then my father started to make the cakes for the family when he retired from work, his christmas present to us at christmas was a cake and a bottle of champers, he is 87 this year and he has sent me his rescipe so I think he is hinting it may be time to think about making my own but then there is Marks and Spencers.

Id like to make my own again. Anyone care to share a recipe? Particularly the last minute ones :) There is a sunday at the end of October or beginning of November called Stir up Sunday because of the tradition that everyone in a household stirs the cake/pudding. I always made my own mince pies at OH insistence for years, a dozen puff pastry like his Mums and a dozen short pastry like mine. Since I had babies at christmas time I used to make em in October and freeze em.

Delia Smiths Christmas cake

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/r_0000001293.asp

Mum has made that on numerous occasions.
(I cheat and just nick a chunk of hers :D :D :D :D)
Lea :)

never made one before i hate the things but was going to make one this year.... how long before should i make it?

Make it any time from now :) When you have made it, place it upside-down in an airtight container - I wrap mine in grease-proof paper as well - and pour small quantities of your choice of spirits (whisky, brandy preferably) onto it at approx weekly intervals (make sure that the spirits soak into the cake rather than run down the sides - don't want to waste it :) ). Then marzipan some time in December (if you like) - but at least a week before you ice it :)

Daisy

Its just me that likes Christmas cake so I make a Yule Log for those who dont enjoy it - any use to Greatbrit girl?

Whats a good recipe for Yule log??????
I have made it once when I was about 14 but not since.
Lea :)

A yule log in our house is a swiss roll recipe from the Bero Flour cookbook with a little cocoa powder. Dont be scared it works and homemade swiss rolls always crack when you roll em! We put cream in the middle of ours then decorate it with chocolate buttercream, plastic robins and a dust of icing sugar for snow. Kids love forking the icing to look like tree bark!