What will you be serving for dessert this Christmas? If you’re thinking of keeping it traditional why not try one of these much-loved sweet treats such as Traditional Christmas Fruit Cake or Traditional Christmas Pudding.
Traditional Christmas Fruit Cake
You’ll need:
- 600g sultanas
- 400g raisins
- 200g currants
- 100g glace cherries, quartered
- 100g glace orange slices, finely chopped
- 80g glace ginger, finely chopped
- 290ml brandy
- 1 1/2 cups plain flour
- 1/2 cup self-raising flour
- 2 teaspoons mixed spice
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 250g butter, softened
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons orange marmalade
- Pure icing sugar, to serve
Method:
- Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat. Add sugar, dried and glace fruit, 1/2 cup of the brandy, bicarbonate of soda and the water. Increase heat to high. Stir for 3-5 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low. Cook for another 5 minutes or until fruit is soft, stirring once or twice. Cover. Stand until cool.
- Preheat oven to 150°C (130°C fan-forced). Grease a 20cm round cake pan. Line with a layer of brown paper then two layers of baking paper.
- Stir grated rinds, egg and treacle into fruit mixture. Sift together flours and mixed spice and stir into fruit mixture until combined. Spoon into prepared pan, removing any air pockets by lightly tapping pan against bench top. Smooth top. Decorate with almonds.
- Bake for 2 hours or until lightly risen and golden brown, and a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Drizzle remaining brandy over warm cake. Loosely cover with foil and cool in pan before wrapping tightly in foil and storing in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Recipe: Food to Love
Traditional Christmas Pudding
You’ll Need:
- 250g butter chopped
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 750g mixed fruit
- 1/2 cup pitted prune chopped
- 3/4 cup dates chopped
- 1 cup brandy
- 1 1/2 cup plain flour
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds
- 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
- 1 cup icing sugar *to serve
Method:
- Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
- Add fruit, brandy, sifted dry ingredients, almonds and breadcrumbs. Mix well.
- Spoon mixture into a greased 8-cup capacity pudding basin. Cover basin with baking paper, secure tightly with string. Cover with foil and basin lid.
- Place pudding in a large pan with enough boiling water to come halfway up the side of the basin. Cover pan, simmer for 6 hours making sure water level remains constant by adding more boiling water as necessary.
- Remove pudding from water, and allow to cool. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- On day of serving, re-boil pudding as above for 2½ hours. Turn out onto a serving platter and dust with icing sugar.
Recipe: Best Recipes
Christmas Pudding Icecream
You’ll need:
For the boozy fruit
- 85g raisins
- 85g sultanas
- 85g pack dried cherries
- 100g fresh or frozen cranberries
- 6 tbsp brandy
- 2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
For the ice cream
- 2 cinnamon stick, snapped in half
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- ¼ tsp caraway seeds
- 4 cloves
- 600ml pot double cream
- 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
- 3 large egg yolks
- 100g golden caster sugar
- oil, for greasing the bowl
- 6 ginger nut biscuits, broken into chunks
- zest ½ lemon and ½ an orange
For the cranberry syrup topping
- 85g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp brandy
- 100g fresh or frozen cranberries
Method:
- Mix all of the boozy fruit ingredients together in a bowl, then microwave on High for 3 mins. Stir, then leave to cool completely, ideally overnight.
- For the ice cream, put the spices in a saucepan and gently heat for 3 mins or so, stirring once or twice, until fragrant. Tip in the cream and vanilla seeds, and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and sugar together. Whisk the hot cream into the egg mix, then tip the mix into a clean pan and gently heat for 5-10 mins until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Pour everything into a bowl or plastic container and leave to cool completely. If possible, chill it overnight as this will infuse the ice cream with a stronger spice flavour.
- Pass the mix through a sieve into another container, then freeze for 5 hrs, stirring in the frozen edges with a fork every hour until you have a smooth, thick mix. Oil a 1.4 or 1.2 litre pudding basin and line with cling film.
- Drain the boozy fruit in a sieve, mix the fruit with the ginger nuts and zests, then quickly stir into the ice cream. Tip into the basin, cover the surface with cling film, then freeze for at least 6 hrs.
- For the topping, put everything into a small pan, gently heat until the sugar dissolves, then simmer for 2 mins. Cool completely. To turn the pudding out, let it sit at room temperature for about 15 mins, then turn onto a plate. Ease the cling film away. Spoon the cranberries and syrup over to serve.
Recipe: BBC Good Food
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