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Delia's classic Christmas cake

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Last year I made Mrs clucks mothers cake from here - I adapted it and added treacle and cherries and chopped nuts and booze of choice which I love port cooked with it and feed it with brandy - as its boiled with the fruit etc its really moist and so cheap and easy to do - I make loads throughout the year - not much mixing or stirring and cheaper than the bought versions whether made or packet I think. Its a fantastic cake.

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Made a special trip to Waitrose on Thursday to buy the kit - but they were completely sold out and unable to reserve from the next delivery, so I was somewhat disheartened...

But yesterday we had the Advent Fayre for my church & the church school - and.........I won "Guess the Weight of the Cake" - so I have a lovely cake, iced, decorated and ready to cut - and have missed out the angst (and the phase where the whole kitchen gets covered in icing sugar as the cat tries to help :roll: )

Very VERY pleased :)

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I have made mine from scratch as usual because these days I have to make a one and a half times mixture to feed my Christmas cake loving family. I had forgotten how hard it is to mix that much I had to stand the bowl on the floor kneel down and stir it that way in the end. having a big enough bowl is a problem too, I used the bowl from my Kenwood Major.

 

 

I know what you mean. I have to make a double sized cake as give some as a gift to MIL and GMIL. I have to mix it in a washing up bowl and it is really hard going. The DIY cake buying your own ingredients definately isn't that expensive. I always use Delia's recipe though. It has never let me down. Fed once a week using syringe and needle :lol:

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Well after a busy day at work I came home to make Delias Christmas cake. I followed the instructions to the letter adjusting the oven temp for my fan oven and despite the burnt smell resisted opening the oven door until the 4 hours were up as told by Delia. I now have a very very very very very very burnt Chrismas cake. Photo to follow. I know it is not the end of the world but I am so disapointed and want to cry. :( I have wasted time, effort and money and I don't have a cake. I will never attempt to make a cake again. :evil: I made a Christmas cake at school many moons ago and it was fantastic.

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130c - it sounds like your oven's thermostat is dodgy :? . I know that feeling of not wanting to try something again if it doesn't work :( . I'm not a confident baker at all and often have things not turn out right.

 

You should treat yourself to a nice M&S cake instead :) .

 

Or dont!! I made delias recipe from scratch last year - my first ever chrismas cake attempt, I also bought an expensive one from M & S and when we came to eat them - the homemade one was delicious and the M & S one very dry and the icing was too thick and hard.

 

If you can - borrow someones oven and bake one in theirs x

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The top of mine is ever so slightly overbrown, but not burnt. I have kept mind upside for when I marzipan and ice it as I read somewhere that you get a much flatter surface doing it that way.

 

Did you remember to put the double layer of paper over the top of the cake? Also did you have lots of paper inside and outside the tin and made sure it was a few inches higher than the tin? My oven also has a dodgy thermostat in that the temperature inside is never what I set the oven to. I have an oven thermometer and I always adjust the oven till it reads correctly on the oven thermometer and I think you will find a lot of ovens are like that. I set my oven at 140c when I made my cake and turned the fan off but the thermometer was only reading 130c so I had to up the temp.

 

It is a shame when you use your girls eggs and then the cake is ruined. I know a few months ago I baked a chocolate cake and for some reason I forgot to put the margarine in it and it was only when I had put the cake in the oven that I turned round and saw the margarine still sitting on the worktop :wall:

 

I am going to attempt to bake a chocolate cake this afternoon for my son's Birthday next week and am keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out okay :oops:

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My DH took photos so I will put them on here in a few days as I am going to visit my sister in Norflk leaving DH to look after my girls. Yes, I put double paper inside and out and on top. :twisted::twisted: I have just had the fridge repaired, had a new dish wather delivered yesterday and now it looks like I may need a new oven. They don't make things to last any more. Can you buy oven thermometors? If yes where from? Thank you Omelteers. :)

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I find to cook anything like a slow cooked cake or casserole you need to set a fan oven at about 120 degrees. I also have a conventional setting on mine which I use for things like that and even then I only set it to 130 to 140.

 

I have often thought that bossy Delia's advice about not checking until after 4 hours is dangerous because the cake wouldn't sink if you were careful after 2- 3 hours if you had a peak and then you would have chance to adjust the temperature of the oven to suit.

 

Having said that her cake recipe is so delicious please don't be disheartened. I must admit that I used half a dozen bought free range eggs this year because I didn't want to use my prescious fresh ones which can be poached for greater enjoyment.

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I put the marzipan on my cake today. Once again was quite a learning curve as I haven't worked with marzipan for years. I cheated and bought the stuff that is already made and rolled out. Still took me ages getting the folds out on the edges though. Now it's on the cake board of course it doesn't fit in the cake tin, so I've looked at the Delia website and she advises putting a clean tea towel over the cake and leaving it like that. I'm not sure how long to leave it for and when to ice it :?

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