**Get a head start for the holiday season and up your baking game this Stir Up Sunday.**
Cherished holiday traditions vary from family to family, whether it's belting out carols, watching festive movies, or even making a cake together. Known as Stir Up Sunday, this baking tradition comes with a rich history, but why not use the occasion to tick something off your Christmas to-do list a little early? These make-ahead Christmas cake recipes are perfect to serve over the holiday season. Keep things old school with our classic Christmas cake or cut corners with our easy cheat’s version – or if time isn’t in your favour, scroll down to our delicious ready-made bakes below.
What Is Stir Up Sunday?
Stir Up Sunday has been bringing families together since the Victorian times. Family members would gather around the mixing bowl and put in all the ingredients of a Christmas pudding – each person taking turns to give it a magic stir to make a special wish for the year ahead – before it was steamed in cloth. Today, it’s still a fun way to get the family together and teach the younger ones about baking as well as allowing the flavours in the cake to mature. Popular Stir Up Sunday recipes now extend to many different confections, like make-ahead Christmas cakes and mincemeat for mince pies.
When Is Stir Up Sunday 2024?
Stir Up Sunday is always on the fifth Sunday before Christmas Day. This year, it falls on 24 November 2024. So, make the most of your freezer and bake a cake (or two) in advance, then stash it away until the festive break. You’ll feel like you’re bossing your Christmas checklist a little early; plus, it’s always handy to have something sweet on standby for guests during the holiday season. You can’t go wrong with fruit cake!
The Classic Christmas Cake Recipe:
For a traditional slice, a classic Christmas cake features a spiced, boozy sponge that’s packed full of fruit and nuts in every bite. We’ve opted for apricot and almond flavours in this bake – using flaked almonds for texture and ground almonds to keep the sponge moist – along with the usual brandy-soaked fruits. The cake is then enveloped in layers of marzipan, homemade royal icing and desiccated coconut to imitate that magical Christmas snowfall. If you’re making ahead, this festive cake is freezable, uniced, for up to three months.
The booze
We’ve used mixed dried fruits steeped in brandy and added a good glug of amaretto to complement the nuts in the cake, but you could use brandy instead if you prefer. If you’re making this cake in advance for Stir Up Sunday, keep the tin covered in clingfilm and, every week for six weeks, remove the clingfilm and pour over 2 tbsp of amaretto.
The spices
A great Christmas cake calls for warming spices. To balance out the sweetness of the dried fruits, add a dash of ground cinnamon and ginger; you could also use cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, and allspice.
The decoration
And now for the fun part! Smooth over the marzipan, then cover in royal icing before sprinkling over desiccated coconut for that frosty look. Rosemary sprigs make an elegant and environmentally friendly cake topper to give the effect of snow-kissed Christmas trees (plus the smell is divine).
The Easy Christmas Cake Recipe:
If you’re all about cutting corners in the kitchen – especially at Christmas time – you’ll love this mincemeat loaf cake recipe. This easy Christmas cake recipe uses mincemeat for all those rich, festive flavours, replacing a long list of ingredients and needless hours in the kitchen. Making on Stir Up Sunday? After it’s baked, cooled and wrapped in foil, this mincemeat loaf cake will keep for two months in the freezer.
The mincemeat
This easy Christmas cake recipe uses an entire jar of mincemeat, a handy hack for getting all those festive flavours into the mix with very little work. No fruit soaking required! We’ve also added glacé cherries to the cake mixture for an extra burst of fruitiness.
The spices
Our all-in-one ground mixed spice is a blend of six different spices: cinnamon, coriander seeds, nutmeg, whole cloves, allspice and ginger. A little dusting of this festive-smelling spice mix packs a punch and saves you having to buy each one individually.
The decoration
We love this thick, snowy drip effect on our mincemeat loaf cake, which is super simple to create. Start by brushing the whole loaf with warm apricot jam, then cover the top in white marzipan and spreadable icing to complete the snow effect. Add a few drops of green food colouring to the marzipan trimmings to create holly leaves and use extra whole glacé cherries for the berries. The icing takes about six hours to firm up, ideally overnight, before you slice and serve.
If you’re making this cake for Stir Up Sunday, leave it uniced and freeze, allowing 24 hours to defrost before decorating. And if you don’t fancy decorating, this loaf is equally delicious sliced and buttered like a tea bread (or why not make two – decorate one and leave the other uniced?).
Best Ready-Made Fruit Cakes
Got enough on your plate already this Christmas? If you’re feeling a little pushed for time, we’ve got your back with these fantastic festive bakes. From nutty stollen loaves to fluffy panettone – which fruit cake will you choose?
*Our price per serve is for the total cost of a recipe's ingredients divided by the total amount used per serve and does not include the cost of store-cupboard staples. Prices are correct at the time of publishing.
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