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Traditional English Christmas muffin: recipe with photo. Christmas cake with nuts, dried fruits, tangerines and alcoholic notes Traditional English Christmas cake with dried fruits

According to a long tradition, a Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts is prepared 2-3 weeks before the holiday. During the waiting process, the product is soaked from time to time with alcohol to avoid mold and to give exquisite taste and aroma. However, nothing stands in the way of tasting delicious delicacy and after it cools down.

A Christmas muffin is baked with dried fruits and a portion of nuts, which are complemented by tender dough and all kinds of spicy additives.

  1. Dried fruits are pre-soaked in alcohol, and the nuts are browned.
  2. Knead the dough, combine with additives, bake until tender.
  3. A ready-made Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts is decorated with icing and appropriate decorations.

English Christmas Cupcake - Recipe

For many years, culinary experts in England have perfected the traditional recipe for holiday baking, so that the result was a success beyond praise. A classic English Christmas cake prepared by following the recommendations below will allow you to get an unspeakable gastronomic pleasure from its tasting.

Ingredients:

  • dried fruits - 800-900 g;
  • cognac - 400 ml;
  • eggs - 4 pcs.;
  • flour, butter and sugar - 230 g each;
  • ginger, nutmeg, cardamom and pepper - pinch each;
  • honey and orange peel - 1 tbsp each spoon;
  • almonds - 100 g;
  • hazelnuts and pistachios - 50 g each.

Preparation

  1. Dried fruits are soaked in cognac (300 ml).
  2. Rub butter with sugar and eggs.
  3. Add honey, spices, zest, flour, and then dried fruits and nuts.
  4. The cake is baked in a mold for 1 hour at 150 degrees and another 3 hours at 130 degrees under foil.
  5. The product is impregnated with cognac and kept in foil for 2-3 weeks.

German Christmas cake adit - recipe


Stollen, a Christmas cake prepared by German housewives for the holiday, is no less magnificent. Peculiarity of this recipe in use yeast dough with dried fruits and marzipan filling. The nuts are often simply mixed into the dough, which is then rolled out before baking and folded in half.

Ingredients:

  • raisins, dried apricots - 200 g each;
  • almonds - 250 g;
  • cognac - 50 ml;
  • eggs - 2 pcs.;
  • oil - 250 g;
  • cinnamon and vanilla - 1 teaspoon each;
  • milk - 200 ml;
  • sugar - 75 g;
  • lemon - 1 pc.;
  • fresh yeast - 50 g;
  • icing sugar, salt.

Preparation

  1. Dried fruits are soaked in cognac.
  2. Yeast is diluted in warm milk, add a spoonful of sugar and flour, and leave for 30 minutes.
  3. Stir in sugar, salt, butter and flour into the dough, leave the dough to approach.
  4. Add dried fruits, nuts, cinnamon, vanilla and zest, knead and let it stand again for 3 hours.
  5. Divide the lump into 2 parts, roll out, fold in half.
  6. A cake with dried apricots, raisins and nuts is baked for 1 hour at 180 degrees.
  7. Liberally grease the hot product with oil, sprinkle with powder.

Italian Christmas Panettone Cupcake

Italian Christmas muffin to taste and appearance similar to Easter cake. A delicacy is being prepared with raisins, nuts and candied fruits from yeast dough with a lot of baking. If desired, add citrus zest, cut dried apricots, other dried fruits to the composition, and flavor the base with vanilla.

Ingredients:

  • dried fruits, nuts and candied fruits - 300 g;
  • eggs - 2 pcs.;
  • yolks - 6 pcs.;
  • oil - 120 g;
  • flour - 700-800 g;
  • vanilla - to taste;
  • milk - 250 ml;
  • sugar - 130 g;
  • dry yeast - 15 g;
  • salt.

Preparation

  1. Yeast is diluted in milk, adding 2 tablespoons of sugar and flour, and left for 10-15 minutes.
  2. Add eggs with sugar, yolks, butter, salt, vanilla and flour.
  3. Knead the dough by adding dried fruits, nuts and candied fruits, leave it warm for 2-3 hours.
  4. Fill the molds with dough in half and bake the products at 180 degrees.

Christmas cupcake with dried fruits and rum

A spicy Christmas cupcake takes on an incredible aroma and taste when baked with the addition of spicy mix fragrant spices. Dried fruits added to the dough are pre-soaked a few days or ideally a week before the intended kneading of the dough in high quality rum.

Ingredients:

  • dried fruits - 600 g;
  • rum - 250 ml;
  • eggs - 4 pcs.;
  • flour - 240 g;
  • ground almonds - 60 g;
  • oil - 200 g;
  • baking powder - 10 g;
  • vanilla and cinnamon - 0.5-1 tsp each;
  • nutmeg, cardamom, cloves - pinch at a time;
  • sugar - 150 g

Preparation

  1. Dried fruits are soaked in rum.
  2. Beat butter with sugar and eggs.
  3. Flour, almonds, baking powder, spices and dried fruits are added.
  4. Transfer the dough into a mold and bake the cake at 170 degrees.

Christmas chocolate cupcake

Chocolate-nut cake acquires a special juiciness and aroma due to the addition of cocoa, spices and soaking the product with tangerine juice. After cooling down, you can cover the treat chocolate icing from melted chocolate, adding a tablespoon heavy cream and decorate to your taste.

Ingredients:

  • raisins - 400 g;
  • cognac - 100 ml;
  • walnuts or almonds - 150 g;
  • eggs - 3 pcs.;
  • flour - 200 g;
  • cocoa - 50 g;
  • baking powder - 20 g;
  • oil - 150 g;
  • cinnamon - 2 tsp;
  • brown sugar - 150 g;
  • tangerines - 4 pcs.;
  • chocolate glaze. spices.

Preparation

  1. Raisins are soaked in cognac.
  2. Beat eggs with sugar and butter.
  3. Add cocoa, flour, baking powder, spices.
  4. Stir in raisins, nuts, bake a cake at 170 degrees.
  5. Squeeze the juice from the tangerines, remove the zest, boil, pour the juice into a hot cake in the form, leave for 20 minutes.
  6. Extract chocolate muffin with walnuts and raisins on a wire rack, cover with glaze.

Gingerbread christmas cupcake

Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts is a recipe that perfectly supports all kinds of experiments. The product acquires a special aroma when added to the dough of grated ginger root or ground ginger. In this case, both components are used, which will only enhance the fragrance.

Ingredients:

  • dried fruits - 250 g;
  • bananas - 200 g;
  • rum - 100 ml;
  • eggs - 2 pcs.;
  • flour - 300 g;
  • cocoa - 40 g;
  • nuts - 100 g;
  • vegetable oil - 130 ml;
  • baking powder and soda - 10 g each;
  • honey and sugar - 100 g each;
  • fresh and ground ginger - 1 tbsp. spoon;
  • cinnamon - 1 tsp.

Preparation

  1. Dried fruits are soaked in rum overnight.
  2. Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, dry ginger, cinnamon.
  3. Beat eggs with sugar.
  4. Banana puree, honey, fresh ginger, oil and dry mixture are added, kneaded by adding nuts and dried fruits.
  5. A Christmas gingerbread cake with dried fruits and nuts is baked at 170 degrees for 1 hour.

Christmas cupcake in a bread maker

A delicious chocolate Christmas raisin muffin, the recipe for which will be presented later, is prepared in a bread maker, which greatly simplifies the task. You just need to prepare in advance all the necessary ingredients and simply put them in the bucket of the device, focusing on the manufacturer's recommendations.

Ingredients:

  • raisins and nuts - 100 g each;
  • bananas - 2 pcs.;
  • rum - 50 ml;
  • eggs - 3 pcs.;
  • flour - 280 g;
  • cocoa - 50 g;
  • nuts - 100 g;
  • sugar - 140 g;
  • margarine - 150 g;
  • baking powder and vanilla sugar- 2 tsp.

Preparation

  1. All the ingredients for the dough are placed in the bucket.
  2. Select the "Cupcake" mode.
  3. After the signal, add chopped bananas, raisins soaked in rum and nuts.

Christmas cupcake in a slow cooker

It is elementary to prepare a cake in a multicooker with nuts and dried fruits, which, as in traditional recipe, you need to soak in alcohol. A set of filling is allowed to be made at your discretion, using different varieties nuts, dried apricots, raisins, figs, dates, all kinds of spices and other components.

Ingredients:

  • dried fruits - 600 g;
  • nuts - 100 g;
  • alcohol - 250 ml;
  • eggs - 4 pcs.;
  • flour - 250 g;
  • Brown sugar- 120 g;
  • oil - 200 g;
  • baking powder and zest - 2 teaspoons each;
  • spices.

Preparation

  1. Dried fruits are soaked in alcohol.
  2. Knead the dough from butter, sugar, eggs and flour, adding spices, baking powder, zest, and then stirring in the nuts and dried fruits.
  3. Transfer the mass into a bowl and bake the cake on the "Pastry" for 110 minutes on one side and another 30 minutes on the other.

Christmas cupcake recipe from Julia Vysotskaya

It's just cooking, but it turns out to be simply amazing-tasting Christmas cupcake from Yulia Vysotskaya. The finished product can simply be greased generously with butter and sprinkled generously with powdered sugar while hot, or glaze and decorate to taste a few hours before serving.

Ingredients:

  • dried fruits - 1 kg;
  • hazelnuts and almonds - 100 g each;
  • alcohol - 300 ml;
  • eggs - 5 pcs.;
  • flour, brown sugar and butter - 350 g each;
  • baking powder - 1 tsp;
  • spices.

Preparation

  1. Dried fruits are soaked in rum.
  2. Beat butter with sugar and butter, add eggs, spices, baking powder and flour during the process.
  3. Stir in dried fruits and nuts, bake a cake at 160 degrees for 2.5-3 hours.

This recipe, mysterious and wonderful, like a premonition of the Holiday, fascinated me! Amazing cupcake full of dried fruits and nuts of all kinds (of which it contains more than dough!), stunningly aromatic and beautiful; at the same time unusual and simple in the way of preparation ... This delicious recipe!

An English Christmas muffin with dried fruits and nuts should be baked 2-4 weeks, or 6 weeks before Christmas, so that it brews well. This year I tried the recipe for the first time and am sharing with you, and by next Christmas we will bake together! We have already learned how to bake traditional German stollen and Austrian thaler biscuits, but now let's master English Christmas pastries.

I cooked according to the recipe from Victoria Golovashevich, but not the full norm, but half a portion - it turned out a cake in the form of 17 cm.

Ingredients:

  • 115 g wheat flour;
  • 115 g sugar;
  • 115 g butter;
  • 2 large eggs;
  • 0.5 teaspoon ground ginger;
  • ΒΌ teaspoon ground cinnamon;
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
  • A pinch of vanillin;
  • 1/6 teaspoon salt
  • 0.5 tablespoon of liquid dark honey (for example, buckwheat; can be replaced with sweet syrup);
  • Orange peel;
  • 150 ml of cognac for soaking dried fruits and 75 ml for soaking a cake;
  • 350 g of different dried fruits, the more types, the more interesting, tasty and colorful the cake will be. I took dark and light raisins, dried cranberries and cherries; dried apricots and prunes.
  • 50 g almonds;
  • 25 g hazelnuts;
  • 25 g pistachios;
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder (in original recipe there was no baking powder, I added it on my own).

For registration:

  • A bag of vanilla glaze;
  • 1 egg white;
  • On request - confectionery sprinkles.

How to bake:

Dried fruits must be soaked in cognac in advance - at least one day in advance. Or it can be done in a week or two, though I haven't tried it. When they are infused and soaked, you can start preparing the cake.

Sprinkle the nuts on a baking sheet and put in the oven preheated to 200 C. Dry, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes. Let it cool.

Nuts and dried fruits can be cut into pieces, or you can put them whole in the dough. The second option is simpler, faster and, according to the author of the recipe, the cupcake turns out to be more beautiful in the context. But when cut into pieces, the dough rises more easily.

Tighten the bottom of the mold with confectionery parchment, grease the paper and the walls of the mold with oil.

Beat the softened butter with sugar.

Add honey. If it is sugared and becomes thick, heat it a little in a water bath - the honey will become liquid again. Wash the orange thoroughly with a brush under hot water, remove the zest and also add to the dough, beat slightly. Add eggs one at a time, beat until fluffy each time.

Sift flour, add spices, salt and baking powder.

Mix the dough.

We combine dried and cooled nuts with dried fruits, after draining the unabsorbed brandy.

Add the colorful, aromatic mixture to the dough and mix thoroughly. We spread the dough into a mold.

Baking English muffin with dried fruits is a whole story, long and exciting! A dense cake with so many fruits and nuts should bake well in the middle without burning on the outside. We put the dish on the middle level and bake at 150C for about 1.5 hours. The cupcake will turn brown, but the center is still moist. Therefore, cover the dish with baking foil so that the top does not burn, and I put a cast-iron pan with water on the bottom of the oven to protect the bottom of the cake from burning. We reduce the temperature to 130C and continue to slowly bake the cake until tender, and it will take up to 3 hours. You can determine the exact baking time according to your oven by tasting the cake with a wooden stick. When it's dry, the cake is ready.

Taking the form out of the oven, let the cake cool completely. Then we turn it over and make holes with a skewer, as in the recipe for lemon or orange muffins... And soak with cognac, pouring evenly with a tablespoon.

After waiting until the cognac is absorbed, wrap the cake in two layers of parchment, and then in foil.

Then I put the wrapped cupcake in a food bag and tied it hermetically. Now you need to be patient - this miracle of baking should be stored for 2 to 4 weeks in a dry, cool place. I kept it in the refrigerator, and if there is no frost outside, it can be on the balcony. Don't worry that the cake will go bad - nothing will happen to it, because it is saturated with a large amount of alcohol, which acts as a preservative. Moreover, in theory, by the time of tasting the cake, the alcohol evaporates, leaving a delicious aroma.

A week before Christmas (originally 2) I took out a cupcake to decorate with icing.

The author makes the Royal icing, and I cooked vanilla, such as for decorating Easter cakes. Beat the frosting with fresh egg white until a thick, snow-white mass, and cover the top and sides of the cake with it.

The remaining time before the holiday we keep the cake in the air so that the icing dries - again, in a dry and cool place.

And now, finally, we have tasted this wonderful Christmas Cupcake!

How delicious it smells !!! And what a rich sectional view! .. Surprisingly dark, like golden-brown velvet, and just as tender - the cake did not dry a bit, on the contrary, it turned out to be very tender, soft and crumbled when sliced. Even whole nuts are soft! And the glaze, probably, needs to be picked up another - this dried up and also crumbled. And, no matter what they write about how alcohol evaporates, the taste of the cupcake seemed to me very much like "Cherry with cognac" candies. But how tasty and unusual it is !!! The British are great :) Now we will bake this wonderful cupcake for Christmas!

Today I want to show you great recipe Christmas cake, which is very unusual and delicious. There is very little dough in it, while it is not at all sweet. Inside is luxurious sweet filling from dried fruits for pie with nuts, aroma of cinnamon and cognac. Since dried fruits are sweet in themselves, I added very little sugar. The pie is so satisfying that you can feed a large number of guests. Such a dessert can be prepared for the New Year and Christmas holidays.

Dough:

  • Ice water - 5 tablespoons
  • Wheat flour - 300 g
  • Butter - 150 g

Filling:

  • Dried fruits - 500 g
  • Semolina - 100 g
  • Sugar - 3 tablespoons
  • Chicken egg - 2 pcs.
  • Sour cream - 4 tablespoons
  • Cognac - 150 ml.
  • Cinnamon - 1 tsp

How to make a delicious tea pie

Previously, I filled the dried fruits with cognac and they infused with me for 5 days. From dried fruits, I took my favorites: figs, dates, prunes, dried cherries and cranberries, a little raisins and a handful of hazelnuts and almonds each. As a result, I got 500 grams of dried fruit. You can add candied fruits to the filling if you like. And when they are infused, I make a dough for a sweet cake, so I immediately sift the flour. Into which I cut cold butter into pieces and rubbed it into crumbs with my hands.

Then I added ice water and kneaded the dough. There is no need to knead it for a very long time, as soon as the dough begins to gather into a lump, it is ready.

I collected the dough in a ball, wrapped it in cling film and refrigerated for 30 minutes. While it is cooling, I am busy with the filling.

I put the dried fruits in the cognac in a bowl. Cut large dried fruits such as figs and prunes into smaller pieces. I poured semolina and cinnamon into them, mixed everything so that the pieces of dried fruit were evenly covered with a mixture of semolina and cinnamon.

Beat eggs, sour cream and sugar into a homogeneous mixture and mixed with dried fruits.

I set aside the filling and started forming the base for the cake. Meanwhile, the semolina will swell and make the filling denser.

Section dough into four parts. The bottom of the pie was rolled out of one part, two parts of the dough went to the walls and the rest for the top. She lined the baking dish with baking paper and laid the rolled dough on the bottom of the mold, then formed the sides of the future cake and stuck them to the bottom. I laid out the filling of dried fruits, pressed it a little, and covered the filling with the remaining rolled dough on top. I fastened the sides of the dough to the top and cut off the excess dough. I chopped the dough on top with a knife in several places. Preheated the oven to 160 degrees. The cake was baked for 2 hours.

Decorating pies is not difficult and quite interesting, so I am starting this process. The cooled cake needs to be covered sugar glaze... I used ready-made icing, but you can make it yourself by mixing 3 tbsp. lemon juice with 70 grams of powdered sugar. Then cover the cooled cake with it and decorate as desired. And if you add to the glaze food coloring, then it can be made in any color of your choice.

Here is my recipe for Christmas cake, which in finished form quite dense and heavy, very aromatic and tasty. It is also moderately sweet, and at the same time very satisfying. I recommend baking it for your loved ones too. Bon Appetit!

That's when the stocks of dried fruits, chocolate, honey, nuts, flour and spices should be replenished ahead of time - a series of winter holidays obliges you to tirelessly bake delicacies, treat relatives, friends and carols who have dropped in on the light! Without going too deep into historical roots, let's remember the traditional sweets for Christmas and choose the best recipe.

About a month before the festival in Italy, they cook high, airy, at first glance reminiscent of our Easter cakes... The Germans also start work early. Their famous, symbolizing the swaddled baby Christ, repeat the shape of a bundle and are dusted with snow-white powdered sugar. It is kept for at least four weeks and is poured over with rum and set on fire before serving. All these pastries must ripen, be saturated with aromas. Having missed the required deadline, we leaf through the culinary notes further ...

Hardworking Norwegian hostesses are sophisticated, they certainly put seven desserts on the table with the crown almond pie... In Sweden, they act more pragmatically: they bake Christmas bread with rye, but with spicy flavors and dried fruits. Modern French pastry chefs create decorated with marzipans - since the time of the Celts, the symbol of home and warmth. And gingerbread gingerbread is almost ubiquitous, in Russia there are similar goats.

Less labor-intensive English Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts, we will dwell on it in detail. Do not think that you will save money on a tasty copy. These baked goods are rich in composition in the literal sense, but captivate with affordable technology and predictable results. Meet!

Cooking time: 70 minutes / Servings: 10-12 / Form with a diameter of 30 cm

Ingredients

  • premium wheat flour 280 g;
  • sugar 200 g;
  • eggs 4 pcs.;
  • butter 250 g;
  • baking powder 7 g;
  • salt 2 g;
  • orange peel 1 tsp;
  • cognac 100 ml;
  • ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger - 0.5 tsp;
  • white chocolate 50 g;
  • candied fruits, raisins, dried apricots 200 g;
  • nuts 100 g.

Preparation

    The longer the dried fruit is in strong alcohol, the better. The night before, we put clean raisins, diced dried apricots, a large pinch of dried orange peel into a deep container - pour in cognac, brandy or rum and keep at room temperature all night long. In 10-12 hours the wrinkled pieces will fill with fragrant moisture and swell.

    Please note that I am not adding multi-colored candied fruits now. I put it in the dough already when kneading. Culinary experts do different things, my experience stopped at this method - being in liquid (water, alcohol) for too long, candied pineapple peels discolor, then in the cut of the finished product they look pale and lose their pleasant elasticity. The next day, dry in a hot and low-fat frying pan for a couple of minutes, thereby revealing the smell of nuts.

    Moving on to the Christmas cake batter. Dissolve 200 g of butter separately. Cutting costs, they take margarine - but the holiday requires truly high-quality baked goods, we don't save money, a delicate creamy taste is important! We heat the oil in a steam bath or in the microwave, cool it down.

    Meanwhile, separately combine eggs with granulated sugar. In recipes classic cupcakes with a low content of additives (nuts, dried fruits, candied fruits), the egg whites are separated from the yolks, beaten with lush foam and introduced into the dough at the end of the batch. There is no fundamental need here. Such a number of heavy fragments piercing the cake from top to bottom, thickens the texture - do not expect airiness and friability. Here, every square centimeter is not only flavored and full of aromas, but is also occupied with various tasty "splinters".

    So, beat the eggs with sugar with a mixer for about 4 minutes until the volume increases three times.

    Mix flour with baking powder, a pinch of salt and spicy-scented cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. The set of spices is easy to change by adding crushed cardamom, anise, pine-camphor rosemary needles, cocoa powder is added to enhance the dark color and chocolate note. Enrich wheat flour at will.

    Now we immerse pleasantly smelling components in an airy whipped composition. Together with the liquid, we shift the swollen dried fruits, zest. Pour in melted butter. Next, we send dry candied fruits and chopped nuts.

    Nuts are chopped coarsely, sometimes they are crushed into crumbs - an individual matter. The main thing is that the portion of various delicacies should be weighty. We mix. You will see how quickly the overweight fragments sink to the bottom of the sweet foam. Finally, add the spiced flour.

    We introduce two or three tablespoons of flour into a viscous mass, each time we remove all flour lumps.

    We knead a rather thick, shiny and very sticky dough - dried apricots, raisins, candied fruits and nuts will rise and a spoon or spatula will hardly turn around. Try to knead thoroughly before placing in the mold for a more or less even distribution of the assortment.

    English Christmas cake comes in any configuration. I have a faceted pyramid with a ring inside, with different test the final product comes out high, presentable. From the inside, lightly coat with soft oil, "dust" with flour or sprinkle with semolina, then fill with dough. We bake immediately, in a preheated oven, for about 45-55 minutes at a temperature of 190 degrees. Check readiness with a match or wooden skewer. At the same time, for watering, we will make a ganache: combine the melted remaining 50 g of butter and the same amount of white chocolate.

Cool the baked Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts in a container to make it easier to separate from the walls. Turning over, take out. The final touch is to pour with sweetness, decorate.

Serve with a rich Christmas ornament, alcoholic or non-alcoholic mulled wine and, simply, with a cup of your favorite tea. Happy Holidays and Bon Appetit!

Christmas muffin with dried fruits and nuts

5 (100%) 2 votes

Compared to other holiday baking recipes, Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts is easier to prepare and less labor intensive. So I decided to stop at it. The middle of December is just the time when it needs to be baked, so that the finished cake gains its taste, it is infused for several weeks. They say that the longer it is held, the tastier it becomes. But I couldn't check it - I made the cake to try it and we could not resist and tasted it as soon as it cooled down. Friends, the Christmas cupcake is great! With a rich, intense taste, aroma of spices, very delicate, crumbly. Cook - you won't regret it!

You can add candied or dried cherries, figs, prunes, lemon or orange peel to a Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts. And certainly more spices, then the cake will not only be tasty, but also very aromatic.

Ingredients

To make a Christmas cake, you will need:

  • wheat flour - 140 g;
  • butter at room temperature - 125 g;
  • eggs - 2 pcs;
  • granulated sugar - 100 g;
  • baking powder - 1.5 tsp;
  • cognac - 2 tbsp. l;
  • raisins, dried apricots, dried cherries - 100 g;
  • candied fruits - a small handful;
  • walnuts - 8-10 pcs. or 50 g of peeled kernels;
  • ginger, cinnamon - 0.5 tsp each;
  • salt - a pinch;
  • nutmeg - 1/3 tsp;
  • cardamom - 10-12 pcs. or 1/3 tsp. ground;
  • cloves - 5-6 pcs;
  • vanillin - 2-3 pinches.

Form with a diameter of 22 cm, height 12 cm.

How to make a Christmas cupcake. Recipe

From dried fruits, I had raisins, dried apricots and dried cherries. He washed all this, cut dried apricots into small pieces and poured the dried fruits with cognac. You can also use brandy, dark or light rum. Ideally, this mixture should be infused for a week or at least a couple of days. But since I cook according to a simplified recipe, I kept it at room temperature for about a day. I set it up in the evening, and the next day after dinner I started to cook.

I prefer to grind spices before adding them to the dough, I rarely buy ground spices. If you also have cardamom in boxes, then after cleaning there should be about half a teaspoon of grains. I grind cardamom and cloves in a mortar, mix with ginger, cinnamon and rub a little nutmeg. You can also add grated zest, but no one likes it with me. In general, select the composition and proportions of the spicy cake mixture at your discretion, first of all, you should like the aroma and taste of the baking.

Peeled the walnuts, poured them into a dry frying pan. I dried it on the lowest fire, almost without frying. As soon as the aroma intensifies and the brown skin is easily peeled off the nuts, I stop heating. Let it cool down, peel it off.

I cut candied fruits into cubes. I chop the nuts with a knife, but not into crumbs, the pieces are about the same size as candied fruits.

I turn on the oven (it needs to be preheated to 180 degrees) and start making the dough for the Christmas cake. Transfer the softened butter to a bowl, add sugar there.

Beat for about three minutes until a thick, viscous mass. It is more convenient to use nozzles in the form of spirals, the mixer speed is average.

Add one egg to the beaten butter. Beat well until all the ingredients are combined into a homogeneous mass.

Then I introduce another one and beat in the same way until a homogeneous consistency. This consistency makes the dough more fluffy, the mixture of eggs, butter and sugar beats better.

After all the ingredients have been added, beat for another couple of minutes at low speed.

I sift the flour, but not all at once, so as not to unnecessarily thicken the dough. First, about a hundred grams, after mixing it will be seen how much more is needed.

Together with flour, I add vanillin (or vanilla sugar) and baking powder into the dough.

I pour in the crushed cardamom seeds, cloves and ground ginger and cinnamon. Rub the nutmeg through a very fine spice grater.

Gradually add more flour until a smooth, creamy dough is obtained. I used exactly 140 grams of flour for my Christmas cake. You may need a little more / less, I think the quantity will differ slightly.

Put more dried fruits, nuts, and other delicious additives in the Christmas cake batter so that there is a lot of everything in each piece. Steeped in strong alcohol, raisins and dried apricots become very fragrant, soft and of course it is no longer necessary to pour boiling water over or steam them. I squeeze out the cognac, put it in the dough, add chopped nuts and candied fruits.

I mix everything, trying to distribute the additives evenly.

I grease the form with oil. I fill it with muffin dough about two-thirds in height. I level the top, otherwise the cake in the oven will rise with a hump and the cap will have to be cut off.

I put the cake in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees. Placed on the middle shelf on the wire shelf, where the heat is evenly distributed. Neither steam nor stone was used. A Christmas cake is baked in a conventional oven for about an hour. The top is slightly cracked - this is normal for cupcakes. Be sure to check for readiness with a wooden skewer, piercing it in the highest place.

After the oven, the cupcake needs to rest, I don't get it out of the mold right away - it is very delicate, it can be damaged. In half an hour, I fold back the walls silicone mold, rearrange the baked goods on the wire rack and let cool completely.

If you are preparing a Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts beforehand, soak it in cognac. To do this, prick the cake with a skewer over the entire surface and pour cognac over it. Wait until it is absorbed, repeat after a few hours. You need to do two or three such approaches, then wrap the cake in foil and remove it away for ripening. I think next year I will decide on such an experiment, but for now I have baked a Christmas cake to try and I feel that this pastry will become traditional with us. Even without soaking and ripening, the cake is wonderful! Happy baking, everyone, and make your Christmas cupcake the most delicious! Your Plyushkin.

Detailed recipe in video format (with impregnation and maturation of the cake)