Our Christmas Cake

INGREDIENTS

This could be the best ever Christmas Cake! We tend to bake this cake well ahead of Christmas and keep it fed and boozy! With our cold pressed rapeseed oil, it's the usual one bowl method so less washing up and very simple bake! Once the apron is on and bake day arrives, it feels like Christmas is just around the corner! And the smells in the kitchen, well.....

INGREDIENTS

150ml Yorkshire Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil, plus extra for greasing the tin
280g plain flour
650g sultanas
300g raisins
200g dates, chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp mixed spice
120ml molasses
180g golden syrup
4 medium free-range eggs, beaten
50g grated carrot
finely grated zest of 1 orange
finely grated zest of 1½ lemons
4 tablespoons Spirit of Yorkshire Filey Bay Flagship Whisky (we use a lot more than this as we like the cake to taste nice and boozy! But this is what the recipe calls for)

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Details

METHOD

Soak the fruit in the whisky overnight. For us it has to be Spirit of Yorkshire and their Filey Bay malts - Yorkshire's first ever single malt from their distillery at Hunmanby Gap. Using casks from Bourbon, you'll clearly taste the hints of caramel, citrus, honey and vanilla. Perfect!

Preheat the oven to 140°C/120°C Fan/Gas 1. Grease a 20cm square or 23cm round cake tin with a little rapeseed oil and line it with 3 layers of baking parchment.

Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the sultanas, raisins, dates, bicarbonate, salt, cardamom and mixed spice and stir well. Add the molasses and golden syrup and mix them in thoroughly. Stir in the beaten eggs, then the rapeseed oil. Add the grated carrot and orange and lemon zest and give it all a good old stir until everything is well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tin – it should reach about three quarters of the way up the tin. Cover the top with a sheet of greaseproof paper and put the cake in the preheated oven. Bake for 2 hours and 15 minutes, then test it with a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake. If the skewer comes out more or less clean, the cake is cooked. If not, put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes, then test again. The cake might need up to 2 hours and 45 minutes, depending on your oven and tin.

Once the cake is cooked, take it out of the oven and leave it to cool in the tin. Then transfer it to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Wrap the cake in greaseproof paper and foil and store in a cool, dry place until Christmas.

And if you want to make your Christmas cake extra boozy, feed it once a week! Make some holes in the top with a skewer and carefully pour over some more whisky. Allow it to soak in, then wrap the cake up again.