My Mother's Christmas Plum Cake
My mother did for a long time bake one of the great classic Christmas cakes. A plum cake. With lots of alcohol and dried fruits. It is not for everyone, but I love it, and my dear wife is completely crazy about it. So here is the recipe that my mom wrote down for me.
Ingredients
Can be split into 2 pcs.
- 250 g (9 oz) butter
- 250 g (9 oz) flour
- 250 g (9 oz) dark brown sugar
- 5 eggs
- 100 g (3.5 oz) minced orange peel-not fresh orange peel but ‘pickled’
- 150 g (5 oz) raisins and currants
- 150 g (5 oz) g dried fruit of your choice
- 80% rum for soaking …. Preferably something like Stroh rum - it MUST be a strong rum. 40% rum will not do …
- Vanilla and lemon zest
- 200 g marzipan
Directions
Let the dried fruits soak covered in rum for 1 hour
Soften the butter and stir in the flour
Beat the eggs and sugar until airy.
Mix in the butter and flour
Gently fold in the rest of the ingredients in the batter.
Pour the dough into a greased spring form
Bake at 180°C (355°F) degrees for 30-40 minutes.
Brush the cooled cake with a good orange or apricot marmalade.
Then cover the cake with flatly rolled marzipan.
Notes
Once cooled, I cut it into two halves so there will be 2 cakes, otherwise it is too big in my opinion. I cover each part separately with marzipan.
It is very well suited for freezing.
It only gets better from resting for several days before it is eaten.