Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi Madeitwithlove, I’ve just been reading up on your above blog. Do you soak the fruit with the treacle and spices also or are these added when actually making the cake? I’m making my fruit fruit cake tomorrow. I thought I only soaked the fruit a day before so am now thinking I could have done it way earlier :-/ the cake has 3 months to mature tho so hopefully it will still be a good cake. The alcohol content does not cover the fruit, should I keep stirring it over the next 24 hours or just leave it?

Sorry…also I’m using lemon juice and rind, do I put that in to the soaking mixture too?
Plus…I always thought you wrapped the tins in newspaper when baking a fruit cake but none of he recipes seem to say this. I’m baking a 10″ round. Would you advise putting baking strips/newspaper round it?

Hi Sue

I throw everything in during the soaking. All the spices, treacle, zest, alcohol or lemon juice to marinade the fruit. As you’ve read in the blog, I marinade for a very long time so when I actually get to bake the cake I taste the mix to see whether it needs a little more spices. Don’t worry that you are not marinading for as long, you are baking well ahead so the cake will be matured and moist. Stir it as often as you can so everything gets coated well in the marinade and avoid the temptation of eating spoonfuls of the stuff!

I have really heavy duty tins for fruit cake now so I no longer bind them on the outside but I do still triple line the inside. Most bakers used to recommend bindng with paper on the outside, it can’t hurt! Years ago my mum used to bake her Christmas cake in one of those big sweet tins ( Roses or quality streets). They were quite flimsy so wrapping them up in wet newspaper and wet brown paper protected the sides and bottom of the cake from burning. We never used to line the inside of the tin either, just grease and flour generously. All the recipes now tend to advise lining the inside of the tins. Some old school bakers still advise wrapping the outside. I think, since you’re making a big fruit cake it might be advisable to wrap with baking strips if you have some. If you don’t own baking strips, make your own with wet towelling wrapped in strips of baking foil. For tutorials on how to make them just google ‘how to make home made baking strips’. Thank you for reading my blog, writing it was a bitter sweet trip down memory lane. x

Thank you Madeitwithlove, I can always rely on your advice 🙂 x

Help! My mixture has split/curdled…can I still use it?

Hi Sue

All you need to do is add a tablespoon or two of flour to the mixture and fold it in. The mixture will fine to use, it’s fruit cake!

Thanks Madeitwithlove…it’s in the oven…fingers crossed for me xxx

It will be fine, don’t worry! xx