Christmas cake If the annual Christmas cake gets you into a flap, panic not. Master baker Dan Lepard has advice and tips on how to make the perfect cake - icing and all. You just need to remember to make it...

In this article

The cake’s progress The basics

The right sized tin Getting the bake right

Feeding the cake Short of time?

Got the turkey ordered, the tree's up, the mince pies are made, the Christmas cake... oops, forgot the cake. Well, that's my Christmas pantomime, and I suspect I'm not alone. Every year, it's a variation on a "too much to get done" theme.

The cake is cause for stress at Christmas: getting the long bake right without burning the rich dark crust; making the marzipan stick flat without the bulge of air bubbles; and getting a smooth coat of clean royal icing to sit as smooth as newly fallen snow. If it's any reassurance, this traditional Christmas cake panic has probably been practised for hundreds of years.

The tradition of the rich fruit Christmas cake grew during the 19th century when the elegant and aristocratic Twelfth Night cake merged with the classless boiled Christmas pudding, according to food historian Bridget Ann Henisch. It was the done thing back in those days to serve a cake on the twelfth night after Christmas, a Christian holy day commemorating the visit by the Three Wise Men to the Christ child.

Though the Twelfth Night cake usually contained a heady mixture of candied fruit, almonds, alcohol, butter and spices, the crumb that resulted was light and delicate.

The plum pudding was the opposite - an ale-soaked ball of raisins and sultanas, beef suet, old bread and dark brown sugar that was transformed through a long boil into a fragrant and fruity oneness. During the Victorian era the practice of celebrating the Twelfth Night with a cake declined slowly and the Christmas-time cake, taking on plum pudding characteristics, began to dominate the occasion.

Aim to keep the majority of the fruit to a mixture sultanas, currants and raisins for tradition

All Christmas cake recipes have very little batter to fruit and, as long as the ratio of fruit to flour is maintained, you can substitute any chopped dried fruit or some nuts for the measure used in the recipe. So if you like Agen prunes and pale walnuts, or pecans and dried blueberries and cranberries, then add some. Aim to keep the majority of the fruit to a mixture sultanas, currants and raisins for tradition.

The fruit doesn't need to be soaked overnight because the long bake and storage will even out the moisture in the cake - although soaking the fruit is another part of the important Christmas cake ritual.

The first step in making the perfect cake is the tin:

• Don't use too big a cake tin for your oven. To get an even bake the heat needs to move freely around the oven so use a tin that allows a good 7cm (about 3in) of space around the sides.
• Choose a deep tin that will give you a good thick slice of cake. Before you bake, try placing the weight of dried fruit from your recipe into the tin and then allow for the other ingredients and a little rise in the oven.

Here are a few more tips for a foolproof cake:

• Get the ingredients to about 18-20C/64-68F (cool room temperature) before mixing. If the batter is too cold before baking the outside can over-bake before the core of the cake is set.
• Line the tin with three layers of greased brown paper or baking parchment to insulate the crust from the harsh heat of the tin.
• Lay foil over the cake tin scrunched at the sides for the first 40 minutes of baking. This creates steam, which helps the cake rise evenly without a volcanic peak in the centre.
• Gradually reduce the heat as the bake progresses. Drop the temperature by 5C/41F after 40 minutes then again after another 20 minutes.

If you're organised enough to get the cake made early, feeding your Christmas cake with a splash of brandy can be part of the fun and ritual of Christmas preparations. After your cake has cooled, you'll need to make small holes across the top of the cake with a thin skewer, and spoon over a few teaspoons of brandy, before wrapping the cake in greaseproof paper and a layer of foil.

Store the cake in an airtight container and bring it out every week or so to feed it with another couple of teaspoons of brandy.

If you're short of time, buy a good-quality cake and show off a bit with the icing. You can buy good marzipan from the supermarket but I prefer to make royal icing and glide it around the sides and top of the cake with a clean palette knife.

If it ends up looking more snowstorm than silent night, make the most of that by swirling the icing on the top into peaks and tie a big white ribbon or other decoration around the sides. It's your Christmas too, so don't let a few bumps take the pride away.