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Christmas Cake I
Answer
Rich celebration cake that seems to take forever to cook - adapting the method slightly in such cases resolves any problem of "my cake has ended up like bread pudding!" syndrome. There is certainly little danger of a cake drying out due to the persistent yet gentle heat of the Aga Simmering Oven. However, all cookers vary slightly and the Aga Simmering Oven is no exception; they all vary slightly depending on age and model - there are thousands of Aga cookers dating from every decade right back to the 1930`s still in daily use and giving faithful service. You will see from the wide cooking time windows given below you will need to find out how your own Simmering Oven behaves. For this reason I have always recommended cooking a Christmas cake the first time during the day, so that you can monitor the cooking progress, certainly starting to check it at the earliest time given. You will then know your own oven and if an overnight sojourn is possible in future with your Aga - we would hate you to over-cook a cake without realising it. As with all cake recipes, it is very important that you use the correct quantities of ingredients for the size and shape of tin, swapping tin size and shapes is a recipe for problems as the surface area of cake mixture is altered and moisture will be driven off at a faster or slower rate than the recipe intends, resulting in a cake that is too dry or - worse still - more like bread pudding than cake. For ingredient quantities see the helpful table in the Aga Book by Mary Berry, pp. 100-101. The Aga Simmering Oven method is really simple and produces very moist cakes with an even colour and excellent flat tops ideal for covering with almond paste and then Royal icing or whatever.
AGA CELEBRATION FRUIT CAKE
Baking the cake slowly in the Simmering Oven gives excellent results. Bake two tiers of a wedding cake at one time but check first that the tins will go in the oven.
First prepare the fruit. Chop the raisins with a damp knife and quarter the cherries. Put the fruit in a container and pour over the sherry and stir in grated rind. Cover with a lid and leave to soak for 3 days, stirring daily. Measure the margarine, sugar, eggs, treacle and chopped almonds into a large bowl and beat well. Add the flours and spice and mix thoroughly until blended. Stir in the soaked fruit and sherry. Grease and line the appropriate sized tin with greased greaseproof paper. Spoon the mixture into the tin and level out evenly.
2, 3 and 4 oven Aga Cookers: Simmering Oven: place the cake tin on the grid shelf (or a rack) on the floor of the oven. The cooking time required will be between the minimum and maximum times shown below. The times do vary as sometimes older Aga cookers have slower Simmering Ovens, look at the cake after the minimum time shown to gauge further cooking time.
ROUND TIN - SQUARE TIN - COOKING TIME
7 inch (18cm) - 6 inch (15cm) - 4 - 8 hours
8 inch (20cm) - 7 inch (18cm) - 4 - 10 hours
9 inch (23cm) - 8 inch (20cm) - 4 1/2 - 11 hours
10 inch (25cm) - 9 inch (23cm) - 4 1/2 - 12 hours
11 inch (28cm) - 10 inch (25cm) - 5 - 13 hours
12 inch (30cm) - 11 inch (28cm) - 5 1/2 -14 hours
13 inch (33cm) - 12 inch (30cm) - 5 1/2 - 15 hours
To check when the cake is done: pierce through the centre of the cake with a warm skewer. If it comes out clean, then cake is cooked. If not, cook for a further 30 minutes or so. Leave to cool in the tin. This is a very moist cake.
Best wishes
Richard Maggs
THE AGA COOKERY DOCTOR
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