Comments on: Rich Fruit Cake Recipes for Various Sized Tins

By: Sheila

Sheila — Sun, 13 May 2012 19:56:19 +0000

@amanda If your brother does not like the taste of alcohol you could always soak the fruit in tea (you can add a tablespoon of brandy if you wish). Make a pot of tea and pour into a bowl, add one tablespoon of brandy and mix in the dry fruit and leave it overnight. Pour the whole lot into a sieve the next day to drain before using the fruit. When the cake has been cooked and has gone cold, make a mixture of one part brandy to one part of sweet sherry. Brush this over the cake but do not soak it. How much you will need depends on the size of the cake. Two tablespoons of liquid will cover an 8 inch cake and I find that 3 tablespoons covers a 10 inch cake.
You will not be able to taste the alcohol just the richness of the fruit and other ingredients and it should be lovely and mellow.

By: amanda

amanda — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:49:40 +0000

thanks for that , my brother don’t want it to taste of too much alcohol , so with what your saying will that be ok and how much orange juice and brandy , and how much brandy and sweet sherry , thanks you been a great help xx

By: Sheila

Sheila — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:08:30 +0000

@amanda It is a little short notice but not too late. I would suggest that you soak the fruit in a mixture of orange juice and brandy overnight before making your cake. Drain the fruit well and then use as recipe states. When the cake is cool, brush over a solution of brandy and sweet sherry before wrapping well in greaseproof paper and sealing in a tin for two weeks. This will give you a week to decorate it. I do not normally recommend this method as the cake will be more crumbly when cutting into small slices, but it will taste delicious and I doubt if anyone will notice once they have tasted it.

By: amanda

amanda — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:03:07 +0000

i’m making my brothers wedding cake , this is my first time its going to be a 14″ fruit cake and 4″ deep , i only have 3 weeks til the wedding ,is it too late to make a fruit cake and do i put the brandy on the cake once made xx

By: Sheila

Sheila — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:22:09 +0000

@Jane. This is a difficult one to calculate. A 5″ deep cake is very deep, and would require very careful monitoring of the oven temperature to ensure it did not burn before it was cooked. Wrap tin in lots of newspaper (three sheets folded into three should do it). My advice would be not to try and calculate the volume, but to use the recipe from the next size up. For example for the 12″ use the 14″ recipe. One other query is that tiered cakes are usually two inches different and not three. Also with the additional depth which will increase with the board, icing and marzipan, you are looking at a very high three tier cake.

By: Jane Fletcher

Jane Fletcher — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 21:13:38 +0000

I am making a wedding cake for my niece at 12″ 9″ and 6″ but she wants the cake to be deep – approx 5inches. How do I calculate the ingredients and cooking time.

Your assistance much appreciated
Jane

By: Sheila

Sheila — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:27:20 +0000

@Geraldine It is quite acceptable to use treacle and the dark muscovado sugar and the flavour will not be too intense. However if you want a more subtle flavour and wish to use the dark sugar, then substituting golden syrup for the black treacle will solve the problem.

By: Geraldine McDermott

Geraldine McDermott — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:55:43 +0000

As I too am about to make a large–12 inch square —fruit cake for my son’s wedding, I am grateful to you Sheila for putting up this very good recipe and very helpful tips and explanations.Thanks.

I have an electric fan oven and find it very very fast, so I usually bake rich christmas cakes by starting at 150 and lowering to 100 ( this is celsius ).

I am worried about the treacle in the recipe—I usually use the very dark muscovado sugar and I feel that treacle as well would be too intense a dark flavour. But I can’t think how best to substitute for treacle.Every recipe I find for a rich fruit cake seems to include treacle.
Maybe I should just go with your basic recipe and get the lighter brown sugar, and use that with the treacle

Si if anyone has any suggestions on this I’d be ratefyl.

By: Sheila

Sheila — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:34:12 +0000

@Chris – I know it sounds wrong, but you do not need self raising flour or baking powder. The eggs alone make these fruit cakes rise. Any kind of baking powder would make the cake rise too fast and crack or ‘peak’. I have found this out from experience.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:49:19 +0000

Your recipe mentions plain flour but has no allowance for baking powder. Is this correct? I’d hate to ruin my fruit cake and have it come out completely flat!