0 Quick and easy mincemeat christmas cake

Want to have a home baked Christmas cake for your festive celebrations, but you've left it too late !

Over the years I have made various versions of mincemeat cakes when this predicament has occurred in our household, the mincemeat is a quick way to provide the moist fruitiness needed for celebration cakes, this recipe is by far the easiest I have tried. The other thing that is good about this recipe is that it doesn't actually require as long a bake unlike a traditional fruit cake.

I 'll cover decorating later in the post but first lets bake the cake.

Ingredients

• 1 jar of mincemeat ( ideally homemade or if buying a luxury type) - approx 400g
• 150g butter - softened
• 150g light muscovado sugar
• 2 eggs - free range
• 225g self raising flour
• 50g glace cherries (rinsed, dried and chopped)
• 100g currants or raisins

You will need an approx 8" round deep cake tin, ideally loose bottomed or springform, butter and line with double thickness greaseproof paper.

Preheat the oven to 160c

Method

• Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl or your food mixer
• Now add all other ingredients
• Mix throughly
• Turn into your prepared tin, level the top
• Bake for approx 1 1/2 hours , until tested cooked with a skewer, watch the top if browning too quickly cover with foil
• Allow to cool slightly in tin before removing to wire rack
• Once cool wrap with greaseproof and store in a cool dry place, until ready to decorate

Quick decoration with marzipan, regal ice and silver balls and star cutters of various sizes, I found some silver ribbon and wrapped it in some cellophane. Very festive if I do say so myself. 

Detail: Quick and easy mincemeat christmas cake

0 Fruity Marzipan loaf cake

I'm not a great fan of the traditional Christmas fruit cake but I do like marzipan , especially when its cooked and when become a lovely morsel of moist intense almond in a bake. This bake makes a lovely light alternative for a traditional cake and its very aromatic whilst baking, you can use any combination of dried fruits the choice is yours. Its also an excellent way to use up the marzipan trimmings from icing your Christmas cake.


Ingredients

• 250g dried fruits ( sultanas, raisins, cranberries, chopped apricots, currants, glace cherries, even mango pieces)
• 2 eggs - free range please
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 150g soft butter or quality margarine
• 100g caster sugar
• 300g self raising flour
• 150ml skimmed milk
• 100g marzipan - chopped into small pieces

Pre heat your oven to 180C , you will also need a 2lb loaf tin, oiled / buttered and base lined

Method

• Mix the butter, sugar and flour together in a food processor or stand mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs
• Now add the eggs, vanilla, milk and mix until you have a loose dough
• Now pulse in the dried fruit until just mixed
• Spoon approx 1/2 the mixture in to your prepared tin
• Add the marzipan in a layer before using the rest of the fruited mixture to top off the loaf
• Smooth the top 
• Bake for approx 60- 75 minutes, carefully testing with a skewer to see if baked through, bear in mind the marzipan
• Allow to initially cool in the tin, then remove and let cool fully on a wire rack.

Detail: Fruity Marzipan loaf cake