This is very much a ‘cheats’ Christmas cake that uses mincemeat as a central ingredient so that you don’t have to soak the fruit or do much preparation beforehand. Even better it does not need to be matured for weeks beforehand like a traditional Christmas cake, just make sure you leave 3 or 4 days before Christmas for your decoration icing (frosting) to set.
Prep time: 20 minutes/Cook time: 80 minutes/Serves: 10-12
Ingredients:
450g mincemeat (you can either use this recipe or use shop-bought)<br/>
240g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g dark brown sugar
150g butter
180g mixed dried fruit
finely-grated zest of 1 orange
finely-grated zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
120g ground almonds
Method:
Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Grease and line a 20cm round cake or spring-form tin with greaseproof paper and spoon the mix into this. Place in the centre of an oven and bake at 160C (320F/Gas Mark 3) for about 80 minutes, or until cooked through.
If desired you can decorate this cake with marzipan and icing sugar, as you would for any Christmas cake. If decorating, do so at least 3 days before Christmas so the icing (frosting) has a chance to set. My preferred method is to cover the cake with a layer of marmalade, followed by a layer of marzipan and then a thick layer of sugar icing (my son loves this!).
