'Tis the Season – Traditional British Christmas Cakes
8” Traditional Ribbon Wrapped British Christmas Cake
If you do British Christmas, you do British Christmas Cake. Its most akin to what we’d call a fruitcake here, but I wouldn’t want to malign this delicious, boozy tradition with that association.
It’s taken some time to nail my gluten free method with homemade refined sugar free marzipan and a good fondant, but now that I’m happy with the results, I’m playing around with a new marshmallow fondant recipe, and fondant snowflake decorations for shippable cakes to send to family and friends.
These cakes are typically made many weeks in advance, fed booze regularly, and then enrobed in a layer of marzipan and fondant and then decorated simply so that they can be stored on a cool countertop to be enjoyed throughout the season. I’ve found GF flours aren’t as sturdy and feeding for weeks in advance can net you a wet cake, so my method is now to start the cake a little more than a week before it will be eaten, aging my mince with plenty of the good stuff and then feeding it for up to 48 hours before getting it iced and decorated.
My cake uses almonds, walnuts, some jarred luxury mincemeat (for the good UK plant based suet that’s next ti impossible to find here), plus dried cherries, currants, blueberries, sultanas, golden raisins and many generous glugs of the the best brandy, curaçao and calvados.
Pro Tip – If you’re making your own Xmas cake and find yourself with some leftover scraps, make fondant covered marzipan balls.
6” Vanilla Marshmallow Fondant Covered Christmas Cake with Fondant Snowflakes and Sugar Pearls – Ready to Ship!
Rich, dense cake!
A slice of Christmas Cake – check out that homemade marzipan layer!
Getting dressed!
Sweet little fondant covered marzipan balls made from the scraps with royal icing snowflakes
Want me to make you a British Christmas Cake of your own? I’ll be taking a limited number of orders for these Winter ‘22. Orders will close for Christmas Cakes in early December and they will be available for local pick up in mid-December. 6’ Christmas Cakes (like the ones pictured here) decorated simply with ribbon are $80. 6’ Christmas Cakes decorated more elaborately (with traditional decorations and/or fondant snowflakes) start at $100. 8” Christmas Cakes start at $130. As always, gluten free and celiac safe!
Find more info about our cake offerings and current menu here.
