Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

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Easy Christmas Cake with Crunchy Apple Frosting

A light and easy Christmas cake, infused with crunchy apple, sultanas, dates, cinnamon and brandy. Recipe commissioned by Emily Crisps.

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Easy Christmas Cake with Crunchy Apple Frosting

Ingredients

  • 150ml warm water mixed with 2 tsp honey
  • 60g Emily Fruit Crisps Crunchy Apple
  • 80g pitted dates, chopped into sultana-sized pieced
  • 200g raisins or sultanas
  • 1 tbsp brandy
  • 200g butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 100g light brown muscovado sugar
  • 100g dark brown muscovado sugar
  • 200g self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds of one vanilla pod
  • 3 tsp cinnamon

Apple Crisp Frosting

  • 500g icing sugar
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 60g Emily Fruit Crisps Crunchy Apple (finely blitzed to a powder)

To decorate

  • 60g Emily Fruit Crisps Crunchy Apple

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2. Line 2 x 9inch cake tins with baking parchment. 
  2. Boil a kettle, add 2 tsp runny honey to 150ml water. Pour over the fruit (apple crisps, sultanas and dates) with 1 tbsp brandy and leave to soak.
  3. Beat the butter with the eggs and sugars. Stir in flour and baking powder. Add the vanilla and cinnamon.
  4. Stir in the pre-soaked fruit.
  5. Pour into the cake tins, bake for 1 hour at 150C.
  6. Remove the cakes and leave to cool completely. 
  7. For the frosting, beat the butter until creamy and light in colour. Add the icing sugar and the powdered apple. 
  8. Place 1 cake layer on a cake stand. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with apple pieces and other Christmas decorations. 

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For more festive treats with Emily Crisps try:

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With thanks to Emily Crisps for this festive-inspired commission. #ad 

About Ren

Ren Behan is a British-born food writer of Polish descent. She is a mum to three young children (13, 10 and 5) and spends lots of time with them in the kitchen. Ren writes about seasonal, family-friendly food on her blog www.renbehan.com. She also contributes recipes and articles to online and print food publications, such as Food52.com, GreatBritishChefs.com, Huff Post Food and JamieOliver.com. She holds a Diploma in Food Journalism with Distinction and has completed a Food Styling course at Leiths School of Food and Wine.

Ren’s cookbook, Wild Honey and Rye: Modern Polish Recipes, draws upon her Polish heritage and regular travels to Poland.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. This is the perfect festive cake, love the list of ingredients and can only imagin ehow good it tastes. A fruity apple flavoured icing makes a welcome change to the traditional Xmas cakes whcih are often too heavy. I think these fruity apple crisps look great, and they win prizes for the best packaging. A cake for the whole family!

    Reply

  10. What a stunning cake Ren, and a real contender for the Christmas cake crown… I think I’ll make this for Christmas Eve! The apple crisps are so tasty… I love how pretty they are too so are fabulous cake decorations 🙂

    Reply

  12. Wow, this cake looks beautiful and so Christmassy. I love the idea of putting those fruit crisps into the frosting – such a good tip! Thank you for sharing the recipe.

    Reply

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