Christmas Treats

 

 

The houses are made out of coloured roll-on icing using square and triangle cutters. The tree was made using star cutters.
Ingredients

Gluten free 20cm fruit cake
450g currants
200g sultanas
200g raisins
100g cherries (glace, chopped)
100g cut mixed peel
3 tbsp brandy
75g almonds (chopped)
350g gluten free plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
0.5 tsp salt
275g butter (unsalted, at room temperature)
225g brown sugar (soft)
5 medium eggs
1 lemons (grated zest)
1 oranges (grated zest)
3 tbsp brandy

Method

Gluten free 20cm fruit cake

Place all dried fruit and mixed peel in a bowl, pour in sherry and mix well. Cover with a clean cloth. Leave for 12 hours or overnight so fruit can absorb the sherry
Preheat oven to 150 deg C (300 deg F)
Grease and line tin with baking parchment
Wrap newspaper/brown paper around tin and secure with baker's twine
Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until the mixture turns a pale colour
Beat in eggs slowly on medium speed
Sieve flour, salt and spices into the mixture and mix slowly on low speed
Fold in soaked fruit, almonds, lemon & orange zest until well mixed
Pour mixture into tin, level with spatula
Place sheet of grease proof paper on top, and make sure to leave a small circle missing from centre
Bake for 3 hours and 15 minutes on middle shelf
Place cake on a wire rack to cool
When cake is completely cool, remove cake from tin
Pierce cake several times with skewer
Pour 3 tsp of brandy over the top of the cake (feeding)
Wrap in baking parchment
Wrap in foil or store in an airtight container
Feed at regular intervals over the next few weeks


To Decorate
ready to roll icing (white)
marzipan
apricot jam
royal icing
 The houses out of coloured roll-on icing using square and triangle cutters. The tree was made using star cutters
                                                                                  

 



Close up of decoration

 This cake is simple to bake and fun to decorate and its Gluten free.