My birdcage shaped, gluten free Christmas Cake

This Christmas I am planning on a making a birdcage-decorated cake to sit on my Winter Wonderland dessert table. To get the shape I need, I have baked two 15cm (6") round cakes and half a 15cm (6") ball cake. Below you will find my recipe for a rich fruit cake that is gluten free.

Fruit cakes are ideally made at least a month before you need to decorate and eat it. They should be fed regularly and left to ripen. I feed mine every week.

Gluten free Christmas cake (makes one 15cm (6") round cake)

Ingredients
225g (8 oz) currants
90g (3.5 oz) sultanas
90g (3.5 oz) raisins
650g (2.5 oz) chopped glace cherries
50g (2 oz) cut mixed peel
3 tbsp cream sherry
50g (2 oz) chopped almonds
175g (6 oz) plain gluten-free flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
pinch of salt
150g (5 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
150g (5 ounces) soft brown sugar
3 medium eggs
grated zest of half a lemon
grated zest of half a orange
3 tbsp brandy

Cooking instructions

1. Place all dried fruit and mixed peel in a bowl, pour in sherry and mix well. Cover with a clean cloth. Leave for 12 hours or overnight so fruit can absorb the sherry
2. Preheat oven to 150 deg C (300 deg F)
3. Grease and line tin with baking parchment
4. Wrap newspaper/brown paper around tin and secure with baker's twine
5. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until the mixture turns a pale colour
6. Beat in eggs slowly on medium speed
7. Sieve flour, salt and spices into the mixture and mix slowly on low speed
8. Fold in soaked fruit, almonds, lemon & orange zest until well mixed
9. Pour mixture into tin, level with spatula
10. Place sheet of grease proof paper on top, and make sure to leave a small circle missing from centre
11. Bake for 3 hours and 15 minutes on middle shelf
12. Place cake on a wire rack to cool
13. When cake is completely cool, remove cake from tin
14. Pierce cake several times with skewer
15. Pour 3 tsp of brandy over the top of the cake (feeding)
16. Wrap in baking parchment
17. Wrap in foil or store in an airtight container
18. Feed at regular intervals over the next few weeks

Cake tins are available in my store on page 2.

After at least a few weeks comes the fun part - decorating it!

In case you missed it, here's last year's Winter Woodland Christmas cake with full instructions on how you can create it yourself.




Have a sweet day!