English Christmas Cupcake

In England, this traditional fragrant pastry is traditionally prepared for Christmas. Moreover, they start long before - 1.5-2 months (ideally), in order to enjoy the delicious spicy taste of this cupcake on a festive day. At first glance, it may seem that the process is complicated, but it is not. It's pretty simple. The main thing is to observe the proportions. A good recommendation would be to prepare all the ingredients in advance, carefully weigh them and arrange them in separate bowls. So, is everything ready? Then let's start!

1. Dried fruits (raisins, cherries and currants) are washed, dried with a clean towel and soaked in a small amount of brandy a day before the start of cake preparation. This stage is optional and you can soak dried fruits in warm water 30 minutes before cooking, but if possible, it is worth doing it in brandy.

2. Turn on the oven to warm up to 150 degrees Celsius. The baking temperature is low because this cupcake needs a long and slow baking process. It is filled with dried fruits, sugar, brandy, so at high temperature the cupcake will burn on the outside, but inside it will remain unpeeled.

3. A round deep shape 24 cm in diameter is lined with two layers of baking parchment. We also wrap the walls of the mold with a double strip of parchment in a circle. This is necessary so that the cupcake does not burn.

4. In a large bowl, combine together the currants, raisins, cherries, candied fruits and half of the lemon zest. Mix everything together. After sifting the flour, and also pour salt and all the spices.

5. In a separate large bowl, mix together butter at room temperature with sugar. Whisk everything with a whisk until fluffy, add the remaining lemon zest and whisk again. Then pour in the lightly beaten eggs, in parts, beating well after each addition. Take our time, do it slowly and carefully.

6. Add half of the flour mixture to the oil mixture, mix everything until smooth. And then add the remaining flour mixture, mix everything well again. Then pour in the brandy and stir everything again.

7. We shift the dough into the prepared mold, shake the mold, you can even knock it a couple of times on the table so that there are no voids left. We align the surface of the future cupcake with the back of the spoon. In the center we make a recess, pressing the dough. During baking, the dough will rise there and the surface of the finished cake will be smooth.

8. If the parchment is accidentally stained with dough, we clean it with a paper towel, otherwise this dough will start burning during baking. This will not affect the taste of the dough, but the flavor may spoil.

9. We put the mold in the oven also on a double layer of parchment (if the oven is gas, you need to make sure that the flame is far enough away). Bake the cupcake for 4 hours and 30 minutes. 2.5 hours after the start of baking, the cupcake is covered with a layer of parchment paper so that it does not brown too much. An important moment! Do not look into the oven too often, otherwise the cupcake may lose its shape.

10. Time has passed - we check the cupcake for readiness with a wooden stick or an ordinary knife. It's easy to do. We insert a stick (knife) into the center of the cupcake, then remove it and look: if the stick (knife) remained dry, the dough did not stick to them, the cupcake is ready. Externally, the cupcake should turn dark brown, and should also rise. If the skewer (knife) is not clean, we increase the baking time.

11. We remove the finished cupcake from the oven and let it cool directly in the mold for an hour, then remove the cupcake and leave it on the grill until it cools completely. After we pierce the cupcake with a fork over the entire surface and pour brandy (60 ml). Wrap the cupcake in parchment paper, put it in an airtight tin can. Every two weeks we impregnate the cupcake with 60 ml of brandy.

When the holiday comes, we serve the cupcake to the table, having previously decorated its surface to taste (you can just sprinkle it with powdered sugar) with cheese slicing (usually cheddar) and wine.

Merry Christmas!