Rich Christmas Cake
Ingredients
1 pound sultanas
1 pound seedless raisins
1/2 pound currants
1/2 pound mixed peel
1/2 pound glazed pineapple
1/2 pound glazed apricots
4 Tbsp. brandy
4 Tbsp. sherry
1/2 pound prunes
1 pound buffer
1 pound brown sugar
1 pound plain flour
4 ounces rice flour
1 tsp. Parisian essence
2 Tbsp. ultra-strong coffee.
Cooking Instructions
Clean and prepare all fruit except the prunes. Pick over vine fruit and remove any stems. Chop the larger fruit into small pieces (a pair of scissors does the job more easily than a knife). Mix the fruits in a bowl and add brandy and sherry. Cover tightly and leave overnight or longer. Prepare one deep 8 inch square cake tin. Grease the interior of the tin with butter. Line with two layers of brown paper cut to fit and to project above the sides of the tin by about 2 inch. Inside the brown paper, fit a layer of grease-proof paper, projecting similarly. Butter the inside of the grease proof. Pit and chop the prunes. Cream the butter and sugar well. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each in thoroughly. Add prunes. Sift flours together and add the butter-sugar mixture alternately with the fruit. Add the essence and coffee. Put the mixture into the prepared tins. Dip one hand in cold water and pat the surface of the cake flat. Bake in a preheated 300 oven for 1 hour, then reduce the heat to 250 and cook for a further 2 1/4 hours. Take the cake from the oven and fold the extra paper layers over the top of the cake, tin and all, while still hot in at least 4 layers of newspaper. Place on a rack and leave overnight. In the morning, remove from the tin, peel off the paper and store the cakes in an airtight tin.
My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” (Psalms 42:3)