Liquid For Date And Marmalade Christmas Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Date And Marmalade Christmas Cake (from SIMPLY NIGELLA) is a moist, gluten-free cake that has a rich flavour and doesn't need to be made in advance and "matured". It is made by the "boil and bake" method, where the fruit, sugar, coconut oil, marmalade, spices and liquid are simmered together before being cooled and mixed with the other ingredients.

The liquid ingredient for this particular cake is tea and you could replace some of it with alcohol, though we feel that 250ml (1 cup) of alcohol would be a little too overpowering. We would suggest using half tea and half alcohol (ie 125ml/ 1/2 cup each of tea and alcohol). We don't have a particular preference on liquors, but rum, brandy and whisky would all be possibilities and are frequently used in fruit cakes. As the cake tastes similar to a Christmas Pudding you may also like to use Pedro Ximenez, a sweet sherry, as Nigella uses this for her Ultimate Christmas Pudding. Please note that this cake does not keep as well as a traditional fruit cake, even with alcohol added. The cake keeps for 4-5 weeks in total and we suggest making it about a week ahead of Christmas.