The best Christmas cake recipe for beginners

This Christmas cake recipe is so good, that I was asked which posh London shop I had bought it from – which was nice because it was only the second Christmas cake I’ve ever made! The recipe is from BBC Good Food:  it’s so easy, I would recommend it for beginners. And if you are new to making Christmas cakes there might be one thing you don’t realise – yes it’s still a couple of months until Christmas, but you should make it now!

Christmas cakes are traditionally soaked in booze and you ‘feed’ the cake regularly over an extended period – so making it in October, or even earlier, is ideal. Of course, you don’t have to use alcohol and a good alternative is tea – I am also tempted this year to experiment with a flavoured tea of some kind, so that my four year old can have some of the cake. Though I am also tempted to make this recipe the same way that I did last year and just keep it out of her way, because it was amazing!

Instead of sherry, brandy or rum, I used amaretto – because I already had a bottle bought on a whim, and it’s not something I really drink. It gave the cake a lovely flavour – even though I made it quite late in the year, on 1 December (though it didn’t get eaten until January, as most of our Christmas plans in 2021 were cancelled due to our first (and only, touch wood) bout of Covid!

When it came to decorating, time was once again an issue. I had made it in a square tin so covered the cake with fondant that I then coloured gold with a packet of gold dust that came with the icing, and then cut out white fondant snowflakes using a plunger cutter to decorate the top. Everyone who tried the cake thought it was very good – myself included, and I don’t really like Christmas cake – though the best comment was from my sister, who said it was so good she assumed I had bought it, from an expensive London shop. So I think from now on this might have to be my go-to Christmas cake recipe, even if I switch up what I feed it with and how I decorate it!

Mini Amaretto Cheesecakes

 This month Alphabakes has teamed up with Random Recipes and we are asking people to choose a cookery book at random, and then choose something from the A section. I asked my boyfriend to pick a random number and counted along my shelves until I found the book corresponding with that number; it turned out to be Marian Keyes' Saved By Cake. The 'a' section isn't particularly big; I had a choice of Pear, Almond and Tahini Cake; Individual Amaretto Cheesecakes; Apple Macaroons; Mam's Apple Tart, or Armenian Sugar Cookies. My boyfriend doesn't like apple or pear and I thought the cheesecakes sounded nicer than cookies, so that's the recipe I chose. These were easy to make and tasted delicious.

To make 6-8, you need:

150g amaretti biscuits

40g butter

360g cream cheese e.g. Philadelphia

80g caster sugar

2 eggs, separated

3 tbsp amaretto liqueur or a few drops of almond essence

Preheat oven to 150C. Melt the butter and crush the biscuits; I did this in a food processor but you can also use a rolling pin (with the biscuits in a plastic food bag).

Grease a 6-hole muffin tin; I sprayed mine with Cake Release. Mix the butter and the biscuit crumbs and press down into the base of the muffin tin.

I found I had enough crushed biscuits for 8 rather than 6 portions. Bake in the oven for 15 mins. Allow to cool then refrigerate for an hour.

To make the filling, preheat the oven once more to 150C. I had a bottle of amaretto in the back of the cupboard which was unopened but I can't remember where I bought it - I think probably on holiday!

In a bowl beat the cheese, sugar and egg yolks. Add the amaretto; you can also use almond essence if you don't want to use alcohol.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff then fold into the cheese mixture. Spoon on top of the cheesecake bases.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.The cheesecakes will rise like a souffle and then fall back again; the ones in the picture in the recipe book were sunken as well so I guess this is what they are supposed to look like!

Allow to cool; these are best refrigerated overnight and served the next day. The base of the cheesecake is particularly more-ish!

I'm sending these to Alphabakes and Random Recipes for our joint challenge this month.