Fresh Fruits for Christmas Cakes

Asked by villothe. Answered on 11th November 2014

Full question

I have fresh berries, strawberries, that I soak in liquor months ahead for a Christmas fruit cake. How could I substitute use of dry fruits soaked in brandy with fresh fruits? Would they have to be peeled before soaking and do I soak as I would dry fruits?

Our answer

Unfortunately it is very difficult to substitute fresh soft fruits into Christmas Cakes instead of dried fruits. Even those that have been preserved in alcohol. One of the reasons for this is that the soaked fruits will not have much structure and so the cake could well turn out to be too soft or wet. In addition it is quite difficult to judge the amount of alcohol that the fruits have already absorbed during their soaking time, so to soak them again in a different alcohol before baing a cake could lead to too much liquid being added to the cake.

We would instead suggest that you use the fruits in some seasonal dessert recipes. They would be a great accompaniment to a slice of Nigella's Spruced-Up Vanilla Cake (from Christmas and on the Nigella website) or you could drain them and use them in Nigella's Boozy British Trifle (from Christmas), and use some of the soaking liquid instead of sherry. They could also be used as a topping for a pavlova.