Christmas cake

[hempsall]

Please,please help.I am going to make a rich christmas cake for a friend but she doesn't like mixed peel or nuts.I wish i'd never offered. Do I just omit them from the recipe or do I up other ingredient quantities to compensate.

[Pea Pod]

I would just omit them.I learnt ages ago doing favours is a pain.I like the old saying A Friend in Need is a Bl..dy nuisance.

[hempsall]

Thanks for that peapod. Baking for someone else is always a bit nerve wracking cos,generally, what can go wrong will go wrong.

[lafrancaise]

I'd add more raisins and put glac� cherries in.

[hempsall]

The recipe includes cherries and they were 1 of the ingredients that i thought i might increase. Would you just up it slightly or by the amount of the ingredients being omitted

[heathfield]

Why not just make a sponge cake and decorate it in a Christmassy way?

[rhona_j]

I make my own, and I hate mixed peel too, although I do keep the nuts in, I like the texture.
I just up the other fruits by a bit each to make up the weight of the peel.
I'm gonna soak my fruit this week.
Good luck!

[Cetti]

Don't worry hempsall, your cake will be a masterpiece!!

I stopped using peel and nuts about 26 years ago as I loathe them so no one else was going to eat them either! Christmas cake is so rich that you can mix and match how you please and it will still be luscious. You can either leave it out or make up the quantities how you wish. Raisins would be my choice for making up any weight, but anything else is fine.

[jennyp]

Try using chopped apricots, glace pineapple, dried cranberries. Also if you plump up the fruit by soaking it in alcohol before mixing, or for the teetotal brigade, hot water.

[rhona_j]

Ooh, yeah, agree with jennyp, I tend to use dired cranberries rather than cherries.
Again, it's just personal choice, anything goes really, as Delia says,
'any cake full of such beautiful things can't fail to taste good!'