Fancy rustling up a succulent Christmas cake? Try Aunt Kate’s recipe from the 1930s

By Rebecca Shearer

December 17 2020, 5:00 pm

Straight from 1933 into your 2020 kitchen is this Christmas cake recipe from Aunt Kate, featuring cherries, nutmeg, lemon and almonds.

Aunt Kate, the “original domestic goddess“, was renowned for her cake-baking skills and had plenty of recipes in her 1933 baking book, including this one for a delicious Christmas cake.

This can be decorated or iced in any way you please – whether it’s sprinkled with icing sugar to create a snow effect or layered with icing to make a gooey sensation.

You could even decorate it with some other seasonal fruits, such as dried orange slices dipped in chocolate or some figs, or even some delicious cranberries.

For more inspiration from Aunt Kate, take a look at her previous recipes here.

Christmas cake

Ingredients

1½ lb (approx 675g) flour
1 lb (approx 450g) brown sugar
2 tbsp treacle
½ lb (approx 225g) preserved cherries
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1 lb (approx 450g) butter
6 eggs
1 lb (approx 450g) currants
½ lb (approx 225g) candied peel
6 oz (approx 170g) chopped, blanched almonds
¼ lb (approx 115g) grated nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
1 gill (approx 140ml) milk
French almond milk

Method

Clean the currants, shred the candied peel finely, and cut the cherries into small pieces.
Mix the different fruits together with three tablespoonfuls of flour.
Put the butter into a large basin and beat it to a cream. When very light, mix in the sugar, grated lemon rind, nuts and nutmeg. Then add the eggs, one at a time, with a little flour, beating well after each addition.
Then add the treacle, milk, fruit, and the rest of the flour sifted with the baking powder, and stir just sufficiently to mix all together.
Bake the mixture in a large prepared cake tin in a moderate oven, 180-190C, for 4 to 5 hours.
When the cake is cold, cover the sides and top with almond paste and icing.