Quick and easy Christmas cake
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Quick and easy Christmas cake
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Sainsbury's magazine
Our team of trained chefs and skilled food writers love cooking up everything from innovative seasonal recipes or clever shortcuts, to step-by-step guides and classic recipes for friends and readers alike.
![Sainsbury's magazine](/uploads/media/100x100/02/11582-April-cover-.jpg?v=1-0)
Sainsbury's magazine
Our team of trained chefs and skilled food writers love cooking up everything from innovative seasonal recipes or clever shortcuts, to step-by-step guides and classic recipes for friends and readers alike.
Ingredients
- 150g ready-to-eat dried figs
- 225g stoned, soft prunes
- 100g skin-on almonds
- 225g soft butter
- 185g dark brown soft sugar
- 250g self-raising flour
- ½ rounded tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ rounded tsp ground ginger
- a generous pinch of ground cloves
- 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 225g raisins
- juice and zest of 1 large lemon
- 3 tbsp black treacle
- 4-5 tbsp dark rum
For the icing
- 3 tbsp apricot glaze, warmed in the microwave or a small saucepan, until runny
- 500g rolled-out marzipan
- 750g rolled-out white icing
Step by step
You can freeze the cooled, uniced cake. Once iced, it will keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container.
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Preheat the oven to 150°C, fan 130°C, gas 3. Line a 7cm-deep 20cm square tin with buttered baking paper.
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Snip the figs and prunes into small pieces. Roughly chop the almonds. Put the butter and sugar in an electric mixer and beat until fluffy.
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Sift the flour into a bowl with the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Add this and the beaten eggs alternately to the butter and sugar in the mixer, beating on a low setting all the time.
TipYou can also bake this cake in a round 20cm tin; cook for 2-2½ hours.
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Stir in the fruit, almonds, lemon juice and zest, treacle and 3 tablespoons of the rum by hand. Tip into the tin and even out with a spatula. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin.
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When cold, make small insertions in the surface and drizzle over a little extra rum. To ice your cake, brush the cake with a little warmed apricot glaze, then cover it completely with 500g rolled-out marzipan, trimming off the excess. Brush the marzipan with cooled boiled water. Cover with 750g rolled-out white icing and trim off the excess.