Date and Marmalade Christmas Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Date And Marmalade Christmas Cake (from Simply Nigella and on the Nigella website) is an extremely damp and moist Christmas cake and does not need to be "matured" in the way that you would for a traditional rich fruit cake. It is at its best between one week and one month of making as the moisture from the fruit can tend to cause the cake to soften over time. It must be kept in a cool place as a warm environment will casue the cake to spoil more quickly.

The cake has a sticky marmalade glaze that is applied just after the cake comes out of the oven and the appearance of this tends to spoil if the cake is frozen as the cake needs to be wrapped tightly, which marks the glaze and the glaze also looses some of its shine on defrosting. The cake can also be slightly soft when thawed. So we prefer not to freeze the cake, if possible. If you have to freeze the cake then wrap it tightly in a double layer of clingfilm (plastic wrap) and a layer of foil and freeze for up to 3 months. You would need to unwrap the cake and thaw it overnight in a cool place then apply a second coat of marmalade glaze to the cake, warming the marmalade slightly first so that it can be spread easily.