We all squeeze in a slice of Christmas cake on Christmas day…well in all honestly its more like a cube of Christmas cake as there’s not much room for anything after a three course Christmas day dinner. This Christmas cake is full of my favourite Christmas spices and gives this cake such a delicious flavour.

This cake is matured with alcohol weekly but you can make it booze free and use fruit juice to soak the cake. The alcohol preserves the cake though so any alcohol free cake would need to be eaten sooner. There are booze feeding instructions below in the cake recipe. This is the first part of this Christmas cake and will be followed with the icing and marzipan layers in part two. I love homemade Christmas cake with homemade marzipan and icing on top its such a delicious combination.

Equipment you may need:

• a large cake tin I used a 20cm springform cake tin
• a christmas cake tin for storing the Christmas cake, I love these adorable Christmas cake tins
• you will also need some greaseproof paper and some kitchen foil for covering the cake whilst baking and for covering the cake before placing in the cake tin.

You may also enjoy my Scottish Smoked Salmon Pate recipe or my Clootie Dumpling recipe for the festive period. The recipe videos are below and you can watch them by clicking on them.

I made this cake a few times, the first time I made this the cake didn’t have paper on the top and it burned really badly … oops! I then took advice from my Mum and added in the greaseproof paper on top of the cake and it came out really well. The cake didn’t burn the second time around with the greaseproof paper on top so I would recommend adding two sheets of paper on top of the cake.

Tips for making this recipe:

• You can use greaseproof paper to protect your cake from burning in the oven. Add one or two round pieces of greaseproof paper to the top of your cake while cooking to avoid burning.
• You can also cover your cake in greaseproof or foil after around 2hrs has passed in the cooking time.
• Keep a close eye on the cake, check on it after an hour or so and make sure its not burning.
• You’ll need a good cake tin to store the cake well. Most Christmas cake recipes recommend storing the cake for at least 4 weeks befor eating to enhance the flavour.
• Follow my Christmas cake part two for the delicious homemade marzipan and royal icing topping.
• I used a fan oven and set the temperature at 140oc, if using a conventional oven you should set the temp to 150oc.

Scottish Christmas Cake Recipe

• 350g plain flour
• 1tsp mixed spice
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2tsp ginger
• 100g ground almonds
• 4 medium free range eggs
• 60ml of brandy
• 100ml of milk
• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• 250g currants
• 200g sultanas
• 225g raisins
• 100g glace cherries
• 100g italian mixed peel
• Additional brandy for feeding

Recipe Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 140oc and grease a cake tin with butter. Cut out some greaseproof paper to line the cake tin and line the tin up the sides and on the bottom.
2. Seive together all the flour, spices and grounds almonds.
3. Beat the egg with the milk and brandy lightly.
4. Cream the butter and the sugar together and add a little to the cake mix. Add in a little of the egg, brandy and milk mix and a little of the creamed butter and sugar and stir. Keep stirring in between and repeat until the egg mixture and the creamed butter and sugar are all added.
5. Mix everything together really well and slowly add in all the fruit. Give everything a really good mix through.
6. Pour the batter carefully into your greased and line cake tin.
7. Protect the top of the cake with a circle or two of greaseproof paper and bake in the oven for 3 1/2hrs – 4hrs.
8. Check on the cake after 2hrs to make sure its not burning. If its browning too fast cover the whole cake tin in a layer of greaseproof or a layer of foil.
9. Pin prick the cake whilst warm and drizzle over 1tsbp of brandy or other strong alcohol like sherry, brandy, whiskey etc.
10. Leave to cool completely in the tin and once completely cooled cover in greaseproof paper and then a layer of foil and store in a cake tin for at least four weeks before eating.

Feeding the Cake: You can use rum brandy, or whisky for feeding this Christmas cake but any other strong spirit would work well like a strong liquer or flavoured brandy. You need to feed the Christmas cake every 1-2 weeks to keep it moist, help it develop flavour and preserve it. Add 1-2tsp of your chosen alcohol every week drizzled over the cake to keep it moist. Leave at least a week of no feeding before icing to let the cake dry out. If your cake feels moist to the touch skip a weeks feeding as you don’t want to over feed the Christmas cake creating a soggy fruit cake. Keep the cake fully wrapped up again after feeding and sealed in the tin.

Follow step two for the homemade marzipan icing and the royal icing on top.

If you enjoyed this recipe feel free to save the pin below to your favourite pinterest board for later use.

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