Quickmas Cake

15 Minute Microwave Christmas Cake

This quick fix Christmas cake is just as happy naked as the day it was microwaved, as it is decked out with marzipan and royal icing. If you’re opting for it in all its festive finery, scroll down and you’ll find 3 ways to make royal icing. If you want to ‘feed’ yourself a glass of booze everyday for the next 2 weeks go ahead, but the cake is perfectly content, and moist, without it. I make no enquiry as to how content and moist you are…

INGREDIENTS:

Group 1

150g dried soft prunes

150g mixed fruit - raisins / mixed peel / apricots

100g dark marmalade

100g soft brown sugar

100g salted butter

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp salt

Group 2

125 g plain flour (gluten-free plain flour +1/4 tsp xantham gum)

50g glacé cherries

2 large eggs

HOW TO:

• Line a 15cm square microwaveable tub, about 1.2 litres in volume, with baking paper.

• Add to a food processor all the ingredients in ‘Group1’.

• I keep this cake light on spice so the main flavour is the dried fruit but you can add as much of whatever spices you like.

• Blitz briefly to lightly chop the fruit and start to bring everything together. If you don’t have a food processor you can chop the fruit smaller with a knife and then use a mixer to make the batter.

• Add ‘Group 2’ ingredients to the processor and give it a few brief pulses to mix the flour in.

• Scrape the sides down and give one final blitz, you’re looking for the fruit to be well chopped but not puréed.

• Scrape the batter into the lined tub and in an 800 watt microwave (alternative wattages listed below) cook for 6 minutes after which time the top should look mostly set and not too raw.

• Rest the cake for 1 minute then cook for a further 3 minutes.

• Check the cake half way through the second cook and stop microwaving when a cocktail stick or a skewer comes out clean.

• Leave to cool and then you can wrap it and keep it in an airtight container and it should stay good for a couple of weeks.

• Or brush the cooled cake with marmalade and cover it with 200g of golden marzipan and 200g of royal icing.

ROYAL ICING

What’s that? You want a recipe for royal icing? Go on then, in fact, have three. This traditional covering for a Christmas cake will crust in a couple of hours but won’t go rock hard over marzipan. All three methods are the same but with slightly different ways of introducing the egg white.

INGREDIENTS:

200g icing sugar

1 sachet egg white

5 tsp water

OR

200g royal icing sugar (icing sugar with powdered egg white already added)

5 tsp water

OR

200g icing sugar

30g (2 tbsp) fresh egg white.

HOW TO:

• Add the icing sugar to a mixing bowl, stir in the egg white powder (if using) then add the liquid (egg white or water).

• Use an electric mixer with a balloon whisk to mix the sugar and the liquid, then beat until the icing is thick and bright white. Use a palette knife to spread over the marzipan-covered cake. You can make peaks by lightly pressing the end of the knife to the surface and pulling up, or you can just smooth it all over.

MICROWAVE WATTAGE TIMINGS

IMPORTANT NOTE: check the cake’s progress on the second cook, as soon as a skewer comes out clean you can stop the second cook.

• 700 watt: 7 minutes 30 seconds cook / 1 minute rest / 3 minutes 30 seconds cook

• 800 watt: 6 minutes cook 1 minute rest 3 minutes cook

THE FOLLOWING TIMINGS ARE A GUIDELINE:

• 900 watt: 4 minutes 30 seconds cook / rest 1 minute / 2 minute 40 seconds cook

• 1000 watt: 3 minutes 20 seconds cook / rest 1 minute / 2 minutes 20 seconds cook

OVEN COOKING

I only ever cook this in the microwave as it always works perfectly but if you don’t have a microwave my suggestion would be to use a 6 inch cake tin and bake at 175ºc for approximately 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven as soon as a skewer comes out clean.

Happy Quickmas!