The Only Christmas Cake Recipe You'll Need

For a reliable Christmas Cake that will please everyone, the South Australian Country Women's Association have you covered. Actually, they have you covered for any type of cake you could possibly think of (in their Calendar of Cakes) but it's Christmas so let's just stick to the Christmas cake for the moment. Plenty of time to try all the rest in the new year!

Preparation time: 40 minutes and soaking time

Cooking time: 2.5 hours and half an hour with oven off

Serves: 60

Equipment: 2 x 23 cm round or square cake tins, or 1 large cake (28 cm round) and 2 smaller cakes (1 x 16 cm round and 1 x 13 cm round)

Ingredients

450 g currants
450 g sultanas
450 g raisins
1 tablespoon glacé ginger, chopped
1/2 cup (125 mL) brandy or port
450 g unsalted butter, softened
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons golden syrup
9 large free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1 heaped cup plain flour
1 heaped cup self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1.5 cups blanched almonds, to garnish

Method

Place dried fruit and brandy together in a large non-metallic mixing bowl, stirring to combine. Cover and leave to soak overnight.

Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced) and lightly grease 2 x 23 cm cake tins or 28 cm, 16 cm and 13 cm round tins and line with a double thickness of baking paper.

Place softened butter, sugar, allspice, mace, cinnamon, nutmeg and golden syrup together in a large mixing bowl. Using electric beaters, beat the mixture until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.

Gradually add the soaked fruit, flours and salt to the butter mixture, stirring gently with a wooden spoon until well combined.

Spoon mixture into prepared cake tins and smooth the tops. Decorate the cakes with blanched almonds and place tins in preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 140°C (120°C fan-forced) for 1.5 hours for small cakes, 2.5 hours for 23 cm cakes and 3 hours for 28 cm cake or until a skewer comes out of the centre of each cake clean.

Turn the oven off and leave large cakes to cool in the oven for a further 30 minutes. For the smaller cakes, remove from oven and cover with foil to cool for 30 minutes. Leave cakes to cool in tins. Remove cooled cakes from tins and peel off baking paper. Wrap in clean baking paper and foil, and keep in airtight containers until ready to eat.

Gorgeous cake pic by Jacqui Way