Stollen Christmas cake
Prep time: 55 minsTotal time: 
Stollen Christmas cake
Prep time: 55 minsTotal time: 
Ailsa Brown
Ailsa Brown
Ingredients
- 150g raisins
- 50g currants
- 100g cut mixed peel
- 50g dried cranberries
- zest and juice of 1 orange
- 150ml cloudy apple juice
- 2 tbsp rum
- 150g soft unsalted butter, plus extra to grease
- 150g golden caster sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼-½ tsp ground cardamom (seeds removed from 10-20 pods and ground in a mortar and pestle)
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- a generous grating of fresh nutmeg
- 175g plain flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 100g ground almonds
- 2 tbsp dried skimmed milk powder
- 1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
- 3 large eggs
- 150g golden marzipan, cut into 1cm cubes
Step by step
The cake will keep, well-wrapped and in an airtight container, for up to 1 month. This is already quite a moist cake but you can feed the cake with a tablespoon of rum a couple of times during storage.
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In a large food bag or a mixing bowl, combine the raisins, currants, mixed peel, dried cranberries, orange zest and juice, apple juice and the rum. Cover and soak overnight.
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Preheat your oven to 160°C, 140°C fan, gas 3. Grease and line the base and sides of a deep 20cm round cake tin.
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In a freestanding mixer, or using an electric hand whisk, beat together the butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
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In a separate bowl mix together your spices along with the plain flour, baking powder, ground almonds, milk powder and a large pinch of salt.
TipMilk powder is a clever trick which gives the cake the creamy flavour characteristic of stollen, but you can leave it out if you prefer.
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Add the vanilla seeds and 1 egg to the creamed mixture, beat thoroughly, making sure you scrape down the sides. Continue adding one egg at a time and beating it in thoroughly before adding the next. If the batter does start to split, beat in a tablespoon of the flour mixture.
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Gently fold in the flour mixture, and then add the cubed marzipan, along with all of your soaked fruit.
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Spoon the batter into the tin and level the surface. Bake for 1 hour and then cover the top with foil to prevent further browning. Cook for another 30-45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Make sure you are not poking into a gooey marzipan section.
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Leave to cool in the tin then turn out and wrap in foil and keep in a cool, dark place until needed.
TipMake it gluten-free: substitute gluten-free plain flour, adding 1 teaspoon xanthan gum at the same time.
Make it smaller: halve the ingredients (use 90g flour, and 1 ½ eggs) and bake the mixture in a deep 15cm round cake tin. Bake for 45 minutes initially, cover with foil and cook for another 30 minutes or until the cake is ready.
