Traditional or not

General Discussion
1

If you put alcohol in your christmas cake, do you use brandy or what?
The only alcohol I remember liking is Amaretto and dark rum, but not sure if either would work.

2

Not made a fruit Christmas cake for years… but the alcohol was always brandy - some added at cooking time and some more gently soaked into the surface of the warm cake before completely cooling and storing… hic.

3

I don’t think it matters as long as it isn’t meths

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4

Vero, I think that’s for the christmas pud :rofl: :wink:

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5

Google is your friend - LOTS of recipes for rum or amaretto soaked cakes

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6

I reckon, OK and best to use any alcohol you actually like the taste of…
so start sipping/testing … hic

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7

Thanks for your replies, seems as if anything goes.
I rarely drink these days and not a great lover of C/cake/pud, just thought I would try a fruit cake with booze…for OH :moon_cake: Just trying to use up the alcohol that has been sitting at chez nous for sooo long!
A few years ago I made a cheesecake with Baileys, it didn’t last long.

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8

We’ve got a cheesecake to make…and there just happens to be a bottle of Bailey’s in a cupboard :thinking:

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9

Go for it Chris ! Sounds delicious :yum: :yum:

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10

The traditional way is to soak the dried fruit overnight in the spirit of your choice before stirring up your pudding or cake.

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11

With cakes, it’s also traditional to make it weeks in advance, put it in a tin. Use a knitting needle to prick holes in the top of the cake and then every week or so, open the tin and drizzle over the cake one’s spirit of choice. That’s what my mum used to do.

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12

Feeding the cake, too of course

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13

I have a jar of fruit soaking in (whatever) alcohol… always at the ready. Don’t make fruit cakes nowadays, make chocolates and creamy delights (all with the alcohol carefully hidden) … hic

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14

I hate brandy, cannot even stand the smell of it, BUT always put it in my Christmas cake made to my Mum’s Scottish recipe, and it is delicious. It enhances the flavor, but you will not know it was brandy, unless you tip in half a bottle of course!

Happy Baking!

15

My sister always made her Ccristmas cake early November (with brandy)
I don’t want to open a new bottle of alcohol just for a cak so it looks as if I shall finish up the Disaranno. What is the purpose of the alcohol?

16

Preservation… I think… :thinking:

17

It’s our turn to do the “dimanche d’advent” this year, so we invite the whole village round for drinks etc - supposed to be an apero but usually lasts well into the night. Anyway, yesterday a neighbour said she was looking forward to tasting english things. Eeek! I can do mince pies, but what else that is easy savory finger food might be classed as traditional English? My plan was to make samosas and cigar borek…

Ideas welcomed! (And we don’t do meat, so sausage rolls are out)

18

Flavour, extra juiciness (nobody likes awful old dry cake), to stop it going mouldy maybe… mainly flavour though I suspect, and a licit way for teetotal great-aunt Gertrude to get a bit sloshed :wink:

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19

Cheese straws, cheese scones/jam scones, sponge (lemon drizzle etc cut in small squares), cheese/pineapple on sticks, pizza… etc (we do meat, so hot sausages…)

All that (plus my mincemeat slice) goes down a treat when our neighbours want a taste of England… :hugs: (and Mary Berry’s Celebration cake…)

20

Those sound lovely, and you could add good old cheese straws, marmite straws, stuffed dates, pity no meat because devils on horseback are so good…

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