Funfetti Christmas Cake Roll Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Can Christmas cake be too moist? ›

You may find that the cake is damp but still edible. If you feel it is too underdone to eat then you can cut the properly cooked outside pieces off and just discard the very wet centre.

It's possible to overfeed your cake, which will make it stodgy and wet. Our advice is to feed it once after it's initially baked, then no more than four times during the maturation period. Try a teaspoonful of whichever alcohol you've chosen before you begin feeding your cake to test its strength.

If you have undercooked Christmas cake then you should cut off and discard the undercooked centre. The exterior pieces may be fine to eat or you could consider using the cooked parts of the cake to make Nigella's Christmas Puddini bonbons, using the cake instead of leftover Christmas pudding.

I upturn the tin, it helps to squash down any stickyup bits of fruit and keep the moisture in. Because of their density fruit cakes take a long time to cool down, especially the size you're making so best leave it to completely cool for a few days.

Soak your cake in milk

Soaking your cake in milk is one of the best ways to moisten a dry cake.

To store, peel off the baking parchment, and store in a cake tin. Feed the cake with 1-2 tbsp alcohol every fortnight, until you ice it. Don't feed the cake for the final week to give the surface a chance to dry before icing.

I like to feed my cake with a few tablespoons of brandy every two weeks up until Christmas. If you want to decorate your Christmas cake, you do not want to feed it just before as it will make it wet and sticky so slightly annoying. If you make your cake nearer to Christmas, that is totally okay.

Wrap the cake in greaseproof paper or baking parchment then wrap it in kitchen foil. Store cake in a second layer of foil or in an airtight tin. You can repeat the feeding process every couple of weeks for three or four feeds. However, if the cake makes the work surface damp, appears wet or stodgy, discontinue feeding.

Can I use a loaf tin instead of a round tin? ›

Loaf Pans. 8×4 inch loaf pan holds 4 cups of batter, the same as a 6×2 inch round pan. 9×5 inch loaf pan holds 8 cups of batter, the same as a 9×2 inch round pan and an 8×2 inch square pan.

For a rectangle, simply take the measurements of the long side and the short side of a rectangular one and multiply them, i.e. 9x13=117 square inches. From this you can see that you can substitute two 8” pans for the 9”x13” one as 2x64 = 128 square inches which is close enough.

Using a 1lb tin in place of a 2lb tin

As its name suggests, a 1lb loaf tin takes half the amount of dough of a 2lb loaf tin. If you only have a 1lb loaf tin, we recommend either halving the quantities in the recipe or making all the mixture and baking two 1lb cakes one after the other.

Rich fruit cake can be cut and eaten as soon as it's absolutely cold. It is a moist cake. However, it shouldn't be wet or sticky, if it is it is probably undercooked.

Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.

This is because too much batter in one cake tin may result in the weight of the batter being too much for the cake to support, causing the cake to collapse and sink in the middle as it bakes. This is especially true for cake recipes which have a more softer, delicate structure to them, which many of my cake recipes do.

If they are only slightly undercooked, you can try returning them to the oven and baking for a few more minutes. If they are significantly undercooked, you may need to extend the baking time significantly.