Are there any bakers here? Is any body here making their own Christmas Cake?

I make a few cakes every year. Sometimes do the puds, not a fan myself but close family love them. My profile pic is last year's main cake.

My wife makes cakes for my parents are her own. I think she makes them at the end of September. They must be nice because my father will very rarely give a slice of his away 🤣

We bake loads of fruit based bits and always use dunnes or tescos own brand dried fruit and have never noticed a difference. Less than half the price of the branded versions.

Storing properly is v important. Last year we couldn't get the usual greaseproof paper, had to get a cheaper one and when we opened up the puddings to feed them they were all mouldy which never happened before. We'd wrap in greaseproof paper and then tinfoil over that. My mother is the expert on the cake and the pudding but she lets me help. I love cooking and I think you can never go far wrong with any of Mary Berry's recipes. I make mince pies too from a recipe I got online. I posted it last year on some thread.

But, yeah, it wouldn't be Christmas for me without the cake and almond icing and the royal icing (not fondant) on it and the cake toppers like a snowman, a Santa and a merry christmas topper and a christmassy cake frill all around it! I just have to have that.

I have to have mince pies, puddings and sherry trifle too. I make tiramisu for the fussy ones. Bought Christmas cakes and puds (in my opinion) are not a patch on your own unless maybe if you bought from a good bakery or handmade stuff from a stall.

I'd go one better on this and say that if you can get to an Asian supermarket, you'll get a big bag of ground almonds at next to nothing, compared to the likes of Dunnes & Tescos

No, as long as you feed it , top and bottom , regularly.

The same thing happened me last year. I made two puddings, one week apart, using the exact same recipe. One had some mould on it when opened on Christmas Day and the other one was fine. They were both wrapped the same and stored side by side, so it wasn't a room temp issue. No idea why it happened to one and not the other, perhaps there was different greaseproof paper used.

Oh, wow, those are fabulous looking cakes. Love how they're presented. A1! Would love a slice right now with my tea!

Edit: regards the mould. My mam is the director in the kitchen and I merely help her out and she maintains it was the cheap greaseproof paper. Remember last year some items were just unavailable at times and she had to buy this cheaper stuff that was almost white rather than the yellowy greaseproof paper. It never ever happened before in all her 30+ years doing them! The paper I guess was the only different thing so we're presuming it was that.

Could be that. Not sure! Either way we've got the greaseproof paper but we're a bit late making them this year. I reckon some weekend in September now we'll get cracking!

I use my mothers Christmas cake recipe which was excellent but I put in a fair amount more booze into it.

In terms of the ingredients I’m actually a brand snob when it comes to a cake I only make once a year so only the top quality ingredients for me I’m afraid-

I know this differs to some thinking above by another poster above but for me, some cheaper ingredients impact the overall taste of the cake - I know the taste I want and I just don’t get that from some of the cheaper ingredients

Made one 2/3yrs ago for my mam as she was complaining that all Xmas cakes from shops are dry and crumbly and only done with fondant icing not to mention price of them, her sister sent one every year when we were younger so she never needed to bake one. Anyhow I made a Delia one from an old cookbook in October and fed with paddy powers every 2wks wrapped in greaseproof paper double layer and double layer of tinfoil, placed in a airtight cake tin. I presented to her wk before Xmas and she was delighted as it was very like ones we received years ago. It was lovely and moist and didn't last long..!! Not bad for a first timer. Going to do a couple this year😊

I use double greaseproof and double brown paper on mine. Most of my ingredients are own brand, have never found a difference in taste, and I've been making them for 20 years, sometimes up to 9 or 10 a year. The price difference is colossal so unless a particular ingredient is noticeably inferior. But I'm also the opposite of a brand snob, as long as I like something I don't care what brand it is.