A Christmas cupcake is a must-have decoration for the Christmas table. Insanely aromatic, it is always infused at least two weeks before the holiday... although, if you have neither the desire nor the opportunity to prepare it in advance, it is quite, very tasty immediately after cooking and cooling. Exclusively for dried fruit lovers!
Don't be intimidated by the large number of ingredients - everything is quite simple, no mysterious delicacies. And another big plus of this Christmas cake is that you don’t need to separate or beat anything, you just take and mix the ingredients. It only takes time to cut the dried fruits. It may well be a delicious gift for someone under the Christmas tree.
Total cooking time – 2 hours 15 minutes
Active cooking time – 1 hour
Cost – $8
Calorie content per 100 g – 318 kcal
Number of servings – Shapes: 20\10 and diameter 17 centimeters
How to make Christmas cake with dried fruits
Ingredients:
Prunes – 300 grams
Raisins – 200 grams(dark)
Raisins – 200 grams(light)
Alcohol – 100 milliliters(rum, cognac, brandy)
Sugar – 200 grams(brown)
Honey – 170 grams
Butter – 200 grams
Orange – 2 pieces
Cocoa powder – 2 tablespoons
Spices – 1 teaspoon(a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg)
Salt - a pinch
Almonds – 170 grams
Egg – 3 pieces
Flour – 150 grams
Baking powder– 0.5 teaspoon
Soda – 0.5 teaspoon
Preparation:
About oranges: we need juice and zest. In order to get the zest, simply use a fine grater to remove the top colored layer of oranges, without grabbing the bitter white.
One teaspoon of spices means a mixture of: cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg, in approximately equal proportions, about a pinch of each spice. If you absolutely don’t like any of the smells, just don’t add them. But! Please note that these smells do not dominate and together create a wonderful, unique, Christmas aroma.
Cut the prunes into small pieces. This procedure will not take you more than 10 minutes. If the raisins are large (and mine are light), it is also advisable to lightly chop them. And now we take all the ingredients that are on the list before almonds: prunes, two types of raisins, sugar, honey, butter, juice and zest of two oranges, cocoa, spices, alcohol (I have high-quality brandy, but I like rum better) - put place them in a saucepan and place on low heat.
Stir occasionally, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for about ten minutes. Remove from heat and set aside for about an hour - half an hour to cool slightly. P.S. Unfortunately, my children managed to eat one orange without my knowledge and I replaced it with 3 juicy tangerines, which did not spoil the taste of the cupcake at all.
Boiled dried fruits: 
Turn on the oven at 150 degrees. Lightly beat the eggs with a fork. By the way, I’ll say a few words about their size. I always buy size L, weighing approximately 65-67 grams. Lightly fry the almonds in a frying pan or dry them in the oven for 15 minutes. Personally, I always use a frying pan. Grind the nuts in a blender or with a knife. There is no need to be zealous - we don’t need almond flour, just chop the nuts without fanaticism. I always use a blender, but I do 2-3 batches.
Sift flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add the dry mixture to our aromatic dried fruits, pour in the eggs, add the almonds and mix. You will immediately see that the dough begins to bubble slowly, this is the soda and baking powder that have begun their work.
All ingredients in a bowl before mixing: 
If you have silicone molds, then in this case no additional actions are needed - the cake comes out perfectly. But, if you don’t want to take risks, then cover the bottom with baking paper. Any other forms must be covered with this paper. Never save on it (paper). Buy already oiled, good quality.
I have one silicone mold, which I am confident in and from which I have calmly chosen any cupcakes more than once - I don’t cover it. The second one is detachable, Teflon - I will definitely cover it with baking paper.
Pour our dough into the molds (about half filled) and place in the oven for approximately 1 hour and 15 – 30 minutes.
Dough in forms: 
Check the readiness of the cupcakes using a dry wooden stick. 1 hour and 15 minutes is always enough for me, but depend on your oven. Remove and cool the cupcakes completely in the pan.
Cupcakes after baking: 
Then everything depends solely on desire, opportunity and time. Either you have done everything on the eve of the holiday, Christmas cupcakes are immediately decorated and are in a hurry to take their place of honor on the holiday table. Or you made them ahead of time and want the cupcakes to rest. In the latter case, do not decorate anything, but wrap it in a couple of layers of paper or foil and store it in a cool place.
If you are going to decorate and serve it (or them), then I suggest you make the most ordinary sugar glaze. Approximate proportions: 4-5 tablespoons of powdered sugar, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice + a little milk to the desired thickness (also about one tablespoon, maybe a little less). This frosting is enough for one cupcake.
By the way, the proposed recipe for a Christmas cupcake does not require additional soaking in alcohol, but this is precisely the method that is mainly proposed - soak a little alcohol during the entire standing time... but not our cupcakes! They will already be rich, not dry and very aromatic. How long can and even should it be stored and infused? The ideal time is one month. Personally, my maximum is 3 weeks. To be honest, I didn’t see any fantastic difference. But! It’s so convenient to do it in advance so that your head doesn’t hurt later and it doesn’t take up time. :)
By the way, happy holidays to you! And, of course, enjoy your meal and enjoy your tea! 
Christmas is just around the corner, so why not make a delicious Christmas cake for the occasion? The recipes proposed in the article will also be useful for gatherings with friends after Christmas.
Making Christmas pies is a tradition that came to us from Europe. It is there that holiday pastries of various shapes have long been prepared. It could be a log of wood or a baby in diapers. Despite the fact that this tradition is not yet fully developed in Russia, delicious pastries will be happily accepted at the festive table.
Traditionally, Christmas cake contains a lot of dried fruit. In some ways they resemble our cottage cheese cake.
It is important to note that traditional European baked goods always contain alcohol - it can be cognac or rum. Therefore, it is not recommended for children to eat the pie. For a classic Christmas pie you will need:
- 200 g sugar and butter
- 300 g of your favorite dried fruits
- 3 eggs
- 300 g flour
- 1 citrus (you can choose from lemon or orange)
- sachet of ripper
- 50 g dark chocolate
You can also add your favorite spices and alcohol to taste. This is not necessary, but it will add a unique flavor to the baked goods. The pie will turn out delicious if you follow these steps:
- Rinse the raisins and, if you still decide to use alcohol, fill them with rum or cognac.
- Place the dried fruits in a separate container and rub the chocolate into it.
- Mix dried fruits with eggs and oil. Add sugar to the mixture and beat again.
- Add the juice of your chosen citrus.
- Take another bowl - in it you will mix flour with ripper.
- Mix all the ingredients in one container and pour into the mold.
- Bake at 160°C for 40 minutes, then reduce the temperature by 30°C and leave for the same time again.
- At the end of cooking, you can pierce the dough with a toothpick (this way you can check readiness) and carefully pour a little cognac into the holes.
- You can decorate the pie beautifully and serve it to the table.
Christmas Ring Meat Pie
For lovers of heartier food, we offer a meat pie snack. Traditionally, meat pie is prepared in the shape of a ring. The main ingredient is chicken, so most often you will find recipes for chicken Christmas pie. Well, we suggest you write down the ingredients for meat baking:
- 1.5 kg chicken fillet
- 6 chicken eggs
- 2 onions and carrots
- greenery
- 400 g puff pastry
- spices and salt to taste
Prepare the holiday pie as follows:
- Wash and chop the fillet.
- Also chop the peeled vegetables - onion with a knife, carrots with a grater, fry.
- Mix the minced meat with vegetables, herbs, spices and eggs.
- Turn on the oven to 180°C and spread parchment paper on a baking sheet.
- Pour water into a glass and place it in the center of the baking sheet.
- Arrange the resulting minced meat in the shape of a ring around a glass.
- Boil 3 eggs and cut lengthwise.
- With the yolks down, place them tightly on the future pie at an equal distance.
- Put the glass away; you won't need it anymore.
- Make beautiful shapes from puff pastry. These can be leaves, stars, roses or braids.
- Make long strips of the rest of the dough and wrap it around the pie.
- Cook the pie for 50 minutes. When the baked goods have cooled down a little, you can make tea and enjoy your own creation. Bon appetit!
What surprise do they put in a Christmas cake?
Christmas is a time of miracles and surprises. Some people hide gifts in a Christmas stocking or under the tree, but it will be very unexpected and pleasant to receive an interesting gift in a Christmas pie. Traditionally, a coin is placed in the pie, but with the current variety of gifts, you can play with ideas:
- Do not depart from traditions and put coin.
- Place into portioned pie slices wishes written on paper.
- For children, you can put a small toy, like a kinder surprise.
- New Year's small souvenir. It can be a tiny bell or a figurine. But don't go overboard with the sizes.
- For couples in love you can put it in a pie ring.
But be careful with any of these points. Before eating the pie, tell the story that there are often surprises in such baked goods, so that guests are careful. Otherwise, the results can be disastrous - from broken teeth to swallowing that same surprise.
Recipe for Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts
We bring to your attention an incredibly delicious pie with dried fruits for Christmas. For it you need:
- any dried fruits – 100 g
- 100 g cognac or rum
- 100 g sugar and butter
- 1 chicken egg
- 150 g flour
- salt and soda on the tip of a knife
- 50 g milk and molasses
- spicy spices
The preparations are as follows:
- Prepare dried fruits in advance; they need to be soaked in cognac for 24 hours.
- Place a greased baking dish in an oven preheated to 180°C, preferably round.
- Mix butter and sugar, then in order of priority in the list, add the remaining ingredients.
- Lastly, add dried fruits, and pour in cognac or rum.
- Place the dough in the pan and bake for 45 minutes.
- After the pie has cooled slightly, pierce it with a fork and pour in rum or cognac.
- It is important to note that this pie can be stored for more than 10 weeks. If you intend to hold it longer, then place the pie on paper soaked in rum and wrap it in the same thick paper or cloth.
- Every 2-3 weeks, pour 1 tbsp over the pie. l. rum or cognac. And the holiday dish will remain just as tasty even after 3 months.
German Christmas cake
The German Christmas cake bears the name gallery and in the traditional version should be prepared a month before the celebration itself. At this time, it should be stored in parchment paper and a dark place. Only then will it be a truly German pastry.
For stollen you will need:
- 200 g milk and butter
- 700 g flour and half as many raisins
- 50 g each of yeast and rum
- 250 g each of almonds and candied fruits
- 75 g sugar
- 1 lemon
- cinnamon and powdered sugar to taste
Preparation of stollen:
- Soak raisins in cognac or rum.
- Dissolve yeast, 1/3 of sugar and a little flour in milk. Leave for 30 minutes.
- After this, add the rest of the sugar and flour, and also mix the dough with eggs, sugar and salt.
- Leave to rise warm.
- Grind almonds and candied fruits.
- Grate the lemon zest onto the dough and mix it with candied fruits and almonds.
- The dough should stand for 3 hours, during which time knead it 2 times.
- Divide the dough into two parts and fold each part in half.
- Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and place the dough.
- Place a baking sheet in an oven preheated to 170°C and bake for 45 minutes.
- Melt the butter, and 2 minutes before the end of cooking, brush the pie.
- Dust with powdered sugar and wrap in parchment paper.
English Christmas cake
English pie, like German pie, needs to be prepared with plenty of dried fruits and nuts. The ingredients for English and German pie are identical, but in this version you should add 700 g of dried fruits and 150 g of almonds, which must be divided in half - fry and cut one half, grind the second into powder.
IMPORTANT: Do not roll out the dough too much, otherwise it may tear due to the large amount of dried fruit.
Making English pie is not difficult:
- Sift the flour and grate the butter, mix thoroughly.
- Add eggs, sugar and milk. After you mix everything until smooth, wrap the dough in cling film and leave in the refrigerator for 60 minutes.
- Finely chop nuts and candied fruits.
- Add melted butter, as well as cognac or rum to dried fruits and candied fruits. Wrap the container with the mixture in cling film and place it in the dough for an hour.
- Roll out the dough (remember, not very thin) and spread the filling on top. Leave 2 cm from each edge.
- Roll the dough into a roll and refrigerate for 60 minutes. This is done so that in the future you can cut the pie into even pieces.
- Place the sliced pie on a baking sheet or baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 40 minutes.
- Sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar and you can make tea. Bon appetit!
Christmas pie with apples and cottage cheese
You can prepare such a delicious pie both for the Christmas table and on Saturday evening. For cottage cheese pie with apples, take:
- 500 g each of flour and cottage cheese
- 200 g sugar and half as much butter
- 10 apples
- 3 eggs
- 50 g sour cream
- 5 g soda
- cinnamon to taste
The preparation is as follows:
- Separate the yolks and whites.
- Mix half the sugar with soda, add the yolks.
- Add flour and sour cream to this mixture. Knead the dough.
- Beat the whites with sugar.
- Cut the peeled apples into rings.
- Roll out the dough and place cottage cheese on it, place apples on top, sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove the pie and fill with whipped egg whites. Bake for another 10 minutes. Cool and enjoy the delicate taste of the aromatic pie.
Austrian Christmas cake
Kugelhupf or Austrian pie is a real work of art. A tasty and aromatic pie has simply unsurpassed taste. Prepare the necessary ingredients:
- 100 g butter and raisins each
- 50 g almond powder
- 1.5 cups flour
- 3 eggs
- 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp salt
- 150 g milk
- 7 g dry yeast
- Citrus zest
- Powdered sugar
Austrian pie can be prepared like this:
- Pour warm milk into melted butter and add almond powder
- Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and sprinkle with almonds
- Add yeast and sugar to butter and milk
- After kneading, add salt and eggs.
- Knead the dough, gradually adding flour
- Continuing to stir, grate the zest and add dried fruits
- Leave the finished dough to infuse in a warm place
- Preheat the oven and place the dough, bake for 45 minutes at 180°C
- Sprinkle the finished pie with powder and invite guests to the table.
Christmas is a wonderful holiday that needs to be celebrated brightly and in good company. And for a large company you need delicious dishes.
Try baking the suggested pies for Christmas, and you will definitely delight your guests and family with fragrant pastries. If you don’t have time or have a lot of worries before the holiday, then you can prepare the pie in advance. The suggested options include recipes for pies that can be prepared a month or more in advance.
Video: Making Christmas cake
Christmas cake or, as it is also called, Christmas cake or pudding is a very rich holiday pastry, which is not only baked in advance, but even the ingredients for this baking are prepared long before the onset of everyone’s favorite holiday. This Christmas pastry has English roots, and who, if not the English, knows all the intricacies of making this delicious pie...
To begin with, that is, a few days, or even better, at least a week before baking, the dried fruits must be poured with alcohol and allowed to be completely soaked. Then these dried fruits are put into the dough, and the alcohol in which they were infused is also sent there. Cupcakes are baked for quite a long time, but at a lower temperature than regular baking. Then these muffins or one large pie must ripen, and this takes time and, as it turns out, the more time you give these baked goods to ripen, the tastier and richer their taste will be. It is better to give the cupcakes a month to mature so that during the Christmas holidays you can treat yourself to this classic English pastry with a rich taste and incredible aroma.
So, to prepare a Christmas pie with dried fruits and nuts, we will need the following products.
As I already said, first you need to pour alcohol into the dried fruits. I used dark rum for this, it has a nice spicy aroma, just what you need for such festive baking! Place the dried fruits in a jar and pour in about 300-350 ml of rum. For dried fruits, I had dark and light raisins, dried apricots and prunes. We put the jar in the refrigerator for a week and shake it once a day.
On the day of baking, dry the nuts in a frying pan. I took almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts. Remove the husks that have separated from the almonds and walnuts.
Let's add alcohol from the dried fruits, and mix the dried fruits with nuts.
In a separate bowl, mix both types of sifted flour, salt and all the spices.
In another bowl, beat soft butter and sugar.
Add orange zest to the whipped mixture. I didn't grate the orange itself, but used store-bought zest.
Now add honey, vanilla extract and eggs one at a time, beating the mixture after each egg. In parallel with each egg, add a little flour mixture.
At the very end, add a mixture of dried fruits and nuts into the dough and mix gently; at the end, pour in the rum that is left from the dried fruits and mix again.
Grease the muffin tins with butter and dust with flour. I divided the dough into 3 parts to bake in several forms. I did this in order to try out these holiday baked goods with different aging periods and, of course, to take a photo for the recipe in advance.
I distributed the dough into the molds and, covering them with foil, placed them in a large mold, which I filled with water to the middle of the small forms. I had the third mold in a separate bowl. In this form, we send the forms to the oven, preheated to 150 degrees and bake for 1-1.5 hours. Then reduce the temperature to 130 degrees and bake for another 2.5-3 hours. As always, check readiness with a wooden skewer.
This is how Christmas mini pies or cupcakes turned out. The smallest one weighed approximately 600 grams, and the larger ones weighed 850 grams. Due to the fact that they were covered with foil, they turned out to be a beautiful color and did not burn at all, but were evenly baked.
Let them cool completely and remove from the molds. Turn over and make holes with a wooden skewer. Pour the remaining rum into these holes, but not all of it; we’ll leave it for soaking next time.
Wrap the cupcakes soaked in rum tightly in parchment paper and cover with foil on top. Leave them for a week in a cool, dark place. In a week we will repeat the impregnation procedure. If you don't want to add alcohol inside, you can simply brush the cupcakes with rum on top and sides.
The day before serving, the Christmas cake with dried fruits and nuts should be removed from the parchment and allowed to stand for several hours if you have flavored it heavily with alcohol. Then cover the top with marzipan or glaze. I simply made the glaze with powdered sugar and a very small amount of water, almost by eye, adjusting the thickness of the glaze. Let it dry. You can decorate the top with candied orange slices, lime, nuts, at your discretion.
And this is how my cut cupcake turned out. It is truly incredibly aromatic and very tasty, and most importantly, there is no strong taste of alcohol, which I was so afraid of, there is a slight piquancy that only added brighter colors to the taste. Merry Christmas and New Year holidays to you!
Today I want to show you a great recipe for Christmas pie, which is very unusual and delicious. There is very little dough in it, and it is not at all sweet. Inside there is a luxurious sweet filling of dried fruits for a pie with nuts, the aroma of cinnamon and cognac. Since dried fruits themselves are sweet, I didn’t add much sugar. The pie is so rich that you can feed a large number of guests. This dessert can be prepared for the New Year and Christmas holidays.
Dough:
- Ice water – 5 tbsp
- Wheat flour – 300 g
- Butter – 150 g
Filling:
- Dried fruits – 500 g
- Semolina – 100 g
- Sugar – 3 tbsp
- Chicken egg – 2 pcs.
- Sour cream – 4 tbsp
- Cognac – 150 ml.
- Cinnamon – 1 tsp
How to make a delicious tea pie
I first poured cognac over the dried fruits and let them steep for 5 days. From dried fruits, I took my favorites: figs, dates, prunes, dried cherries and cranberries, some raisins and a handful of hazelnuts and almonds. As a result, I got 500 grams of dried fruits. You can add candied fruits to the filling if you wish. And when they are brewed, I make dough for a sweet pie, so I immediately sift the flour. Into which I cut cold butter into pieces and rubbed it into crumbs with my hands.
Then I added ice water and kneaded the dough. There is no need to knead it for a long time; as soon as the dough begins to form a lump, it is ready.
I gathered the dough into a ball, wrapped it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. While it is cooling, I make the filling.
Placed dried fruits steeped in cognac in a bowl. I cut large dried fruits, such as figs and prunes, into smaller pieces. I poured semolina and cinnamon into them and mixed everything so that the pieces of dried fruit were evenly covered with the mixture of semolina and cinnamon.
Beat eggs, sour cream and sugar into a homogeneous mixture and mix with dried fruits.
I set aside the filling and started forming the base for the pie. Meanwhile, the semolina will swell and make the filling denser.
Divide the dough into four parts. I rolled out one part for the bottom of the pie, two parts of the dough went for the walls and the rest for the top. I lined the baking pan with baking paper and placed the rolled out dough on the bottom of the pan, then formed the sides of the future pie and molded them with the bottom. I laid out the dried fruit filling, pressed it down a little, and covered the remaining rolled out dough on top of the filling. I secured the edges of the dough sides to the top and trimmed off the excess dough. I pricked the dough on top with a knife in several places. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. The pie was baked for 2 hours.
Decorating pies is not difficult and quite interesting, so I’m starting this process. The cooled cake should be covered with sugar icing. I used ready-made glaze, but you can make it yourself by mixing 3 tbsp lemon juice with 70 grams of powdered sugar. Then cover the cooled pie with it and further decorate as desired. And if you add food coloring to the glaze, you can make it any color you like.
This is my recipe for Christmas pie, which when finished is quite dense and heavy, very aromatic and tasty. It is also moderately sweet, and at the same time very satisfying. I recommend baking it for your loved ones too. Bon appetit!
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