Christmas Cake 2024

I'd like to tell you a tale about my recent Christmas cake. It is not the one on the left, although it is one of mine.

I used a recipe I have used the previous two years, but made a few tweaks, such as adding coconut. I fed the cake weekly with brandy for a couple of weeks and then put marzipan on it. After leaving it a few weeks, I finally iced it.

It looked good until we cut into it. It was moist, borderline wet.

What could I do given the cost of the ingredients and the effort of making it? Internet searches didn't help. So I got creative and forged ahead, just like writers do when we are cornered.

1. I halved the cake, removed the icing and marzipan and took out a lot of the fruit and squished it down into a cake tin.

2.  I cooked it at 160 degrees in my air fryer for about 8 mins.

3. It was crunchy and delicious.

4. We've nibbled it; eaten with yoghurt for breakfast;  had it accompany cups of tea and coffee.

This year, Christmas cake 2025 will be made using a very old recipe. But I will still be halving the sugar.

Did your Christmas cakes turn out all right?