Lost Christmas Cake Recipe

Asked by Lori Griffin. Answered on 19th July 2012

Full question

Hi I've recently moved house and lost my old recipes. For the past few years I've been using a Christmas Cake recipe which uses marmalade and brandy, it used to also give a ingredients by tin size I've searched and seached but can't find it on the net, I'm sure it was one of Nigellas and it came from a friend or relative in Oz. Any ideas? Many Thanks, Lori

A couple of years ago Nigella posted a Christmas cake recipe. It involved orange marmalade and I think it was a friend of Nigella who gave her the recipe. I can't find it online anywhere, is it in any of Nigella's books?

Our answer

We suspect that the Christmas Cake recipe you are looking for is Nigella's Time-Honoured Christmas Cake. It includes dried fruits that have been soaked in brandy and also includes some marmalade in the cake batter. The recipe appears on p96 of Feast and is in a table giving quantities for 3 different tin sizes. Unfortunately the table format makes it difficult for the recipe to be posted on-line.

We would also suggest considering the Traditional Christmas Cake recipe from Nigella's book Christmas. The recipe is similar in soe ways to the Time Honoured cake but includes ground almonds, which makes it moister. The recipe can be found on p172 of Christmas and again comes in a table format for varying tin sizes.