HELP! I only have one week to make and cover this cake!!!!!!!! Sorry this looks long - that's because I have included the recipes here as well.

I have 2 recipes and can't decide which is best to use. Your answers will help me decide which is the more suitable cake recipe to use.

Ok. I need to make a large cake so am using a 12 inch (31cm) round pan. I will also be covering this cake with fondant. The cake has to be ready in a week.

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MY QUESTIONS FOR CAKE 1:

The 1st recipe (recipe below):

The recipe uses a 22cm round pan.
Instead of doing my maths and culculate the ingredients to fit into a 31cm pan (which means there will be a lot of decimal points etc, is it ok to make double the quantity and fill my 12 inch pan two thirds way (use the rest for a smaller cake)?

IF this is ok, how do I calculate the cooking time?
The current recipe has oven setting on very slow (120.C/248.F) over 5 hours (22cm pan)

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Recipe:
Easy melt and mix fruit cake

Serving size: Serves 8
Cooking time: More than 1 hour

This undecorated cake can be made 2 months ahead and stored in an airtight container or refrigerated if the weather is humid.

INGREDIENTS

5 cups (1kg) mixed dried fruit
¼ cup (35g) slivered almonds, toasted
2 tablespoons sweet sherry
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1¼ cups (250g) firmly packed brown sugar
250g butter, chopped
½ cup (125ml) milk
3 eggs, beaten lightly
3 cups (450g) plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons mixed spice

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to very slow (120°C). Grease a deep 22cm round cake pan or a 19cm square cake pan, cover the base and side with 2 layers of brown paper and 2 layers of baking paper, bringing the paper 5cm above the edge of the pan.

2. Combine the fruit, nuts, sherry, essence and sugar in a large bowl. Combine the butter and milk in a small saucepan, stir over the heat, without boiling, until the butter melts.

3. Add the butter mixture, eggs and sifted dry ingredients to the fruit mixture; mix well.

4. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake in a very slow oven for about 5 hours.

5. Cover hot cake with foil; cool in pan.

Suitable to freeze.
Butter mixture suitable to microwave

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MY QUESTIONS FOR CAKE 2:
The 2nd recipe (recipe below):

This recipe has the perfect amount of ingredients for a 12 inch cake.
However, it does say that the cake gets better with keeping and needs at least 6 weeks to allow the flavors to mature and develop.
Now I only have a week and I have to cover this cake as well.

Will this cake tastes terrible if eaten so soon? (if so, will use the 1st recipe).
IS it ok to soak the fruit in FRUIT JUICE instead of alcohol (need to be a alcohol free cake)?

Do I need to pre-boil the juice first (e pineapple juice for extra zing), cool then soak the dried fruits overnight? Assume I have to put these in fridge since the juice will go off otherwise. Will take it out the next day.
Is it best to leave the juice in room temperature before mixing into the cake?

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English Fruit Cake (spice cake)

Serves/Yields: 45
Prep. Time:
Cook Time: 4 hours
Category: British and Irish
Difficulty: Moderate
Introduction
This is a traditional English Fruit Cake (sometimes known as spice cake). It is usually used as the base for celebration cakes and is covered in marzipan and either Royal Icing or fondant
Ingredients
340g (12 oz) plain flour
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
255g (9oz) butter
255g (9oz) soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons black treacle
6 eggs
0.9 kg=907g (2lb) mixed dried fruit (currants, sultanas, raisins)
170g (6oz) chopped mix peel
113g (4oz) chopped nuts
113g (4oz) chopped glace cherries
1/4 bottle of alcohol (either brandy, whiskey or sherry OR fruit juice ) plus extra for 'feeding'(I usually use brandy)
Directions
Make at least 6-8 weeks before icing. Longer if you can

Grease and double line a 7 inch ( square or an 8 inch round tin and preheat oven to 275F/ 140C


soak the dried fruit, cherries and mixed peel in the alcohol overnight. Sift the flour with the spices. In a separate bowl cream the butter, sugar and treacle together, beat in whole eggs 1 at a time adding a tablespoon of the sifted ingredients with each. Stir in mixed fruit mix and nuts. fold in remaining dry ingredients. Transfer to prepared tin and smooth top with a knife. bake in centre of oven for 4 - 4 1/2 hours until a skewer inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Leave in tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. When cold wrap in greaseproof paper and aluminium foil and store somewhere dark. Once a week unwrap cake and feed it by drizzling a couple of tablespoons of alcohol over it then wrap up again. When required cover with marzipan and royal icing or fondant. As mentioned in an earlier post you can actually decorate several weeks ahead which gives you plenty of time if you want to do a really intricate design.

This cake does get better with keeping. It really needs at least 6 weeks to allow the flavours to mature and develop but the longer the better.


Lastly, due to the time limit (one week) which is the better recipe to use?

Oh, one more question re lining of the pan. I have read that for fruit cake, its best to line the pan with more layers of baking and brown paper to stop it from burning.

IS this the roll of brown paper you can get from the newsagent (waxless) which people use for wrapping books with?

I hope someone is able to help me with this. Sorry about the many questions. I have never made a fruit cake before, hence the many questions.

Thanks so much!

violet

Oh I am sorry Violet, But I haven't ever made a fruit cake before either!
I know that my mother makes fruit cakes way ahead of time and lets them mature, but I don't think that the cake would not be nice if it didn't mature, I believe it might just let the fruit flavours soak into the cake more over time.
I know Emmacakes in the u.k does pretty much only fruit cakes, she would be a good one to pm about this!
I haven't gone down the fruit cake road yet as they are so expensive and a pain to fill in all the gaps with little dabs of sugarpaste (we were given a prebaked fruit cake to cover in cake decorating classes a couple of years ago.
As far as multiplying the ingredients, I regularly double the amount of my mud cake mixes to fill larger pans and have never had any problems doing it that way.

I have no idea how to answer the alcohol vs fruit juice for soaking..sorry.. no clue on that one.

But I do know that mum lines her tins with baking paper and reuses the same old brown paper (like that thick wrapping paper you mentioned) every time she does fruit cakes. She lines the tin on the inside with the baking paper and uses the brown paper on the outside and also folds it and puts it underneath the tin too.
I hope this helps, sorry I haven't got any personal experience to pass on!
Regards Keira

OK, I'm here to reply to your pleas!

1. If you're going to use fruit juice, the keeping factor will be lessened anyway - the alcohol acts as a preservative as well as giving flavour. So, any of the recipes subsituting fruit juice will be fine. I personally would go with orange juice, it will blend with the other ingredient flavours better. Put the juice, spices and the fruit in a saucepan and bring to the boil (be careful as this might scorch over too high a heat - keep stirring), remove from the heat, cover and allow to soak overnight. This will not require refridgeration. Proceed with recipe as written the following day.

2.Lining tins - use a double thickness of baking paper in the tin - includung lining the base and cut a double circle for the top too, and when the mixture is in, cover with the paper - this will prevent over-browning on the top, remove for the last 30 mins of baking time. Wrap the outside of the tin with brown wrapping paper (the stuff for parcels) and tie with string or stick down with tape.

Neither cake will taste terrible at only a week old, but all rich fruit cakes will taste better with maturing time. I really think that they benefit from alcohol infusion too, but you have to do what the customer wants! I think I'd go with the second recipe because it contains more moisture, and you will need that as you won't be feeding your cakes for the usual several weeks.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Violet
To work out how much mix you need to fill your 31cm pan do the following (I think that 2 mixes may not be enough)
Grab a jug of water and fill your 22cm pan to where your know the cake mix will come up to, then place the water in the 31cm tin, then do it again, just count how many times you need to fill the 22cm pan to get the sam amount of batter in the 31cm pan.

Im sorry i can't help with the recipes, i have only ever made one fruit cake and that was the one i was given in class. Where i come from we dont have fruit cakes ; ) so i only heard about them when i came to australia.
Anyway if the cake needs to mature, then dont make it, you're better off making a boiled fruit cake that can be eaten straight away. I have a cake that needs maturing (without extra alcohol) and there is a big difference in taste flavour and texture if you leave it to mature. It actually becomes more moist with age.

anyway i hope that helps you some
cheers
Nati

a fruit cake without alcohol wont keep for long, it will keep longer than a sponge, but not as long as a traditional fruit cake, so I wont worry about the maturing factor. Even with alchol the cake can be eaten immediatly if u want, the only difference the cake wont taste very "traditional"

As for substituting the alcohol, my gran used to soak her fruit in tea, in S-Africa we get something callled "rooibos tea" this has a very unique flavor and is wonderfull to use, but u can use normal tea as well.

HTH

I can't answer your questions for the first recipe but the 2nd one is mine so I can help with that one.

The cake will taste fine if made and eaten straight away. The flaours won't be quite so mellow but it will be fine.

It's fine to soak the fruit in orange juice. A lot of people who don't like alcohol do this.

The brown paper referred to is the ordinary wrapping paper. You line the tin with parchment then wrap the outside of the tin with the brown paper. However these days as modern oven temperatures are so controllable I don't usually bother with the brown paper. I just line with parchement and keep a check on it. If it's getting a bit too brown I put a square of parchment on top. In all the years of making cakes I've only ever had to do this once.

My recipe makes a 7-8 inch cake about 3 inches deep. I would double the amount to make a 12 inch tin. Fill your tin to the level you want the finished cake to be as these cakes rise very little.

Bake it for 4 1/2 hours then test it with a skewer. If it doesn't come out clean bake for a further 1/2 hour then test again. It shouldn't take more than 5 1/2 hours maximum to bake.

Hope this helps

Michelle

Hey Violet, cake No. 1 sounds similar to a boiled fruit cake, which is what I make and for the amount of time you have, personally, I would use that one. As far as working out the number of mixtures I double but if I need more I make a separate batch and any leftover I make small cakes (4" the size of a large tuna can) to give as presents or donate them. That size cake will probably take most of the day or night to cook, I judge by a skewer in the centre.
Fruit juice is fine but pineapple juice and pineapple can ferment and blow the cake (I have heard of this happening a number of times). Not sure about boiling the juice though.
Brown paper from the newsagents is fine to use, just make sure you don't use nylon string (it'll melt) and I usually sit my cakes on a wad of newspaper (no it doesn't burn).
Hope I've been of some help. Good luck
Lyn

Hi everyone,

THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! Oh, I can't tell you how much I appreciate the help from each and everyone of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All questions have ben aswsered and as soon as I decide on which recipe to use, I can start the cake!

Wow, l learnt a lot from your replies. Didn't know about the brown paper trick and alsoabout phneapple juice fermenting! Didn't even realise it would.

I will post a pic end of next week when it's done.

violet

Hi Violet

So hard to know what advice to give you - I don't think any of the cakes will taste bad if they aren't left to mature for the suggested time - if you are cooking the fruit and leaving to stand over night before mixing in the dry ingredients it does hurry up the process somewhat.

Recipes for fruit cakes mostly come with a chart of pan sizes , ingredients and cooking times.

I bake a fruit cake every year and always use a wonderful recipe for a last minute fruit cake (my life is hectic and I am not that organised towards the end of the year). You can literally bake it today and eat tomorrow. Let me know if you need it I am in South Africa so time difference could be a problem !!

You can use fruit juice instead of alcohol - have done so successfully before using orange juice. If the cake is iced with fondant it will be sealed and should keep. Just replace alcohol with fruit juice and and follow the recipe.

<q>Oh, one more question re lining of the pan. I have read that for fruit cake, its best to line the pan with more layers of baking and brown paper to stop it from burning.

IS this the roll of brown paper you can get from the newsagent (waxless) which people use for wrapping books with?</q>

Yes do so especially if you are cooking for a long time also wrap the sides to stop them from burning and drying out (you can use newspaper tied around the outside of the tin). Cover the top with foil halfway through cooking to prevent the top from becoming too dark and dry. And also place a baking tin filled with water in the oven (check the water level from time to time as it evaporates) with the cake this helps to keep it moist.

Hope it all works out!

Thanks so much Leigh01 for the tip! useful to know about the water. thansk again!

violet