Just before Fiona was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the beginning of December, she and I were talking about Christmas cakes. I told her I was planning to bake a German Christmas cake: Stollen.
Fiona was very excited to hear that because she had had it before in Europe when she was visiting her family, and hadn't been able to find one like it here in America. I was not sure I would be able to bake one like what she had in Europe, but of course Fiona had great confidence in me.
Fiona was very excited and offered to prepare dried fruit wth her good quality brandy, but unfortunately she couldn't do it. She was planning to soak the dried fruits in brandy for weeks...her body was too weak to do it even though she got all of the ingredients already.
I didn't know that she already had all of the ingredients, and as I saw her declining health, I didn't bother to ask her for the dried fruits.
I didn't soak the dried fruits because Christmas that year was too hectic, but I was still determined to bake Stollen for Fiona, and although, she couldn't eat much, she still said she loved it.
So this is a recipe for Christmas cake — which is not Stollen — but one of Fiona's own recipes. When I found this recipe in her recipe collection, it reminded me of Fiona's face being so excited to help me bake the Stollen for her last Christmas with us....
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup self rising flour (or 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour with 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon fine salt)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cake spice
1 nutmeg grated or 2 teaspoons of grated nutmeg
12oz / 340g dried currents
12oz / 340g raisins
2oz / 55g dried cherries
2oz / 55 g blanched almond
4oz / 110g candied orange peel
Orange zest from 1 orange
Lemon zest from 1 lemon
1 cup / 226g salted butter
1 cup brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons brandy or rum
Direction
Soak the dried fruit with brandy or rum for at least 1 hour.
Grease a bundt pan with butter and pre-heat oven to 310 F / 155 C degrees .
Whisk together flour, salt, and all spices.
Beat butter and sugar until creamy and smooth. Add eggs one at a time and mix throughly.
Add half of the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, then add the soaked dried fruits, almonds, and orange peels. Finish with remaining flour.
Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour, reduce temperature to 290F / 145C degrees, and continue baking for another 3 hours.
Put a piece of foil over the cake to prevent it from getting too brown.
Allow to cool in the pan.
If you want to have more flavor, brush with brandy or rum while the cake is still warm.
Cake spice is a British spice blend especially for Christmas cake and here is the recipe if you cannot find at a local store.
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
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