Traditional non alcoholic christmas cake

Hey everyone, hope your all well? So today im going to share with you my recipe for traditional non alcoholic christmas cake, im making mine into cupcakes but i use the same recipe for my 8 inch round christmas cake which i will be doing later in the year and i will be sure to show you ways to decorate it but for today were going to make them into cupcakes so lets get started!

So to fill your house with the best smell ever you will need:

8oz plain flour

8oz butter

8oz dark brown soft sugar

4 eggs

24oz mixed dried fruit (i use a mix between raisins, currents and sultanas) 

2oz mixed candied peel

2oz glace cherries halved 

1tsp mixed spice or your favourite spices

1/2tsp cinnamon

1tbsp cocoa powder

Rind of 1 lemon

Rind of 1 orange

Pinch of salt

3tbsp apricot jam

So lets begin, start by preheating your oven to gas mark 2 and then mix together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy and add in the eggs 1 at a time and mix well inbetween each addition

Its ok if your mix curdles a bit, stir in your lemon and orange rind

Sift together your flour, salt, cocoa powder and spices, take 2tbsp of this and add it to your dry fruit mixing it in well until all the fruit is coated, add your fruit and the rest of your flour into your butter, sugar and eggs and mix well

Next line a muffin tin with liners and spoon the mixture evenly into the cases, fill the cupcake cases 3/4 full and bake in the oven for 30-35 mins or until a skewer insterted into the centre comes out clean

Finally heat the apricot jam on a stove or in the microwave and run it through a sieve 

 

Once the cakes are cooked take them out of the oven and straight away brush the jam over the top of them

Leave the cakes to cool completely!

Lets talk decoration......these are perfect by themselves or if your not the decorating type you can just add marzipan and ready to roll icing and their good to go, but i personally love to decorate, i have many ways i like to decorate mine, stay tuned for christmas cupcake decoration ideas but for today im going to show you how to make a snowman! Please excuse the side full of icing sugar i had a lot to make that day.

You will need:

100g Golden marzipan

200g ready to roll icing in the colours white, blue, orange and black

Edible glue (mix suagr and water to make this)

Pink food colouring

 

First roll out your marzipan to about 1/4 inch thick and using a circle cutter the same size as your cupcakes cut out circles and place them onto your cupcake and smooth out

 

Do the same with your ready to roll icing and stick it on top of the marzipan with your sugar and water mix and smooth out

Next roll out your blue icing and cut into a half moon shape

Stick it onto the top of your cupcake again just use a little sugar and water to stick it down

Roll out a thin strip of blue icing for the hat band stick it on and use a cocktail stick to give it texture, roll a small ball of blue icing use a cocktail stick again on this to give it texure and stick that on the top of the hat

Next use a ball tool or a small round object to press small holes into the icing for eyes, add a little of the water and sugar mixture and place two small balls of black icing for eyes, using the orange icing shape a cone shape for the carrot nose again stick on with the water and sugar

Next take the pink food colouring and dip a tiny bit on his face for rosey cheeks, use the end of a nozzle, straw or just use a knife to make an imprint of his mouth and there we go a lovely little frosty snowman, perfect for the holiday season! Here are some more ideas for your cupcakes if you would like a blog post on how to do any of these please let me know, there will be a lot more tutorials on how to decorate christmas cupcakes so please stay tuned for that! 

Stay tuned for may more feative posts and please follow and let me know if you have any requests, thank you!

Xxx