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Kathy's Medieval Christmas Cake

Listen here to Kathy's Christmas cake recipe from Ben's show.

Listen here to Donyatt garden and food expert Kathy Crouch talk us through how to make her Christmas cake. She came in with her 'Panforte di Siena and also showed Ben how to make a Christmas wreath.

RECIPE:

Mix together in a large bowl:
100g flaked almonds
150 g mixed candied peel
150 g currants
100g plain flour
2 tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp ground nutmeg

Grease an 8 inch cake tin, line with rice paper or baking parchment. Heat your oven to 150 degrees C.

Put in a pan:
1 tbsp water
125 g runny honey
100g icing sugar

Slowly melt, then boil this until lightly caramelized, until a drop on a cold plate makes a small ball that can be squashed with your finger quickly add the caramel to the dry ingredients with a heavy wooden spoon. It is like mixing tarmac! Press into your lined cake tin, this will stick to everything! I use another piece of baking parchment to press it down flat. If it starts to set before you have flattened it, put it in the oven for five minutes to warm through again and have another press down.

Cook for half an hour. Leave in the tin until cold. It will be soft to the touch when warm and firm up when cold. It is traditional to sieve this generously with icing sugar before serving. Cut into small slices and serve with coffee!

Release date:

Duration:

4 minutes

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