Urgent Help with Christmas Cake

GAAFan123

Hi,
I am making my Christmas Cake for the first time and I read somewhere on the internet that you can soak fruit in water. So I covered the fruit in water last night and this morning I drained so I could then add the brandy. However, I decided to tast a bit of the fruit before adding the brandy and I got it into my head that it lacked flavour!

Am I right? Does soaking your fruit in water and draining cause it to lose flavour?

Eviledna

It's a bit hard to see what "urgent" help you need here? Is the cake now baked? If so it's too late, but I would usually soak the fruit in whiskey or rum for added flavour, as opposed to water.

It depends on the recipe you are using, but I bet it'll be tasty as the dried fruit becomes moist and plump when soaked in any way. Don't worry

SBWife

Yes, soaking in water and draining will cause some of the flavor to be washed away. The norm is to soak overnight in a couple of tablespoons of brandy.

GAAFan123

Thanks everyone! No, it's not baked yet! I added a bit of sugar though to replace the natural sugar that was lost,

One very last question! I have a lot of fruit in my cake and I always thought you had to cover the fruit with whatever you were soaking it in and that the liquid would cover everything, then the fruit would soak it up. However, when I add the brandy, it doesnt cover the fruit. Is this normal?! Thank you everybody!!

SBWife

You're never going to add enough liquid to cover the fruit when you make a Christmas cake - it'd be a soggy mess if you did so. Depending on the size of the cake you'll just add a few tablespoons of booze - stir in to distribute and leave it at least overnight.

My impression is that you've ruined the fruit that you've got. I'd start over and follow the directions exactly - baking a cake isn't like making a stir fry or cooking tomato sauce you really have to follow a recipe in order to have it come out correctly.

Lpfsox

My mam used to soak the fruit in cold tea with some brandy or whiskey added. Gorgeous gorgeous cake ensued...

phormium

I do agree that you should possibly start again, maybe you can use that fruit for a Christmas pudding which is a wetter mix anyway so it might not matter.

Have never come across steeping the fruit in water first, sounds more like the old instructions to wash the fruit first as years ago the fruit had to be washed before use and picked over as they called it to check in case there was any little bits of twigs/stalks from the grapes. I remember my grandmother doing this and spreading it out on tea towels to dry before she made the cake.