Scandinavian christmas cake recipe

Scandinavian Christmas Cake recipe
⚠ Note: for metric to imperial (or vice-versa) conversion please refer to our article on Cooking Measurements 101.
♼
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♼ Recipe origin is unknown.
Ingredients
For the cake: | |
1 ½ tsp | salt |
100 g | sugar |
¾ tsp | ground cardamom, you may prefer to use ½ tsp as it can be rather overwhelming |
350 g | plain flour |
1 tbsp | baking powder |
75 g | sultanas, replace with dried pineapple and mixed peel in roughly equal amounts, if preferred |
75 g | dried apricots, roughly chopped |
75 g | glacé cherries, chopped |
350 ml | milk |
60 g | butter, melted and cooled |
3 large | eggs |
For the Glaze: | |
1 medium | egg white, beaten with |
1 tbsp | water |
For the topping: | |
granulated sugar or coarse sugar | |
slivered almonds |
Instructions
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4, 180ºC, 350ºF. Lightly grease a 2lb, 900g-1kg loaf tin.
In a medium-large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients until well mixed and evenly distributed and then stir in all the fruit.
In a separate bowl mix the milk, butter and eggs. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir to combine thoroughly. If necessary add a little more milk if the mixture appears dry. Pour into the prepared tin and level the surface.
Mix egg white with water together in a small coffee cup and use a light pastry brush to apply the glaze. As the dough is wet and loose, it will not be easy but be gentle and take it slowly. Top with sugar and almonds if wished.
Bake for about 55 minutes or until tested done with a skewer. The top may crack but this is normal.
Allow to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes and then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap the cooled cake in waxed paper or cling film and then in foil to store.
About this recipe:
Julekage comes in two forms; one risen with baking powder, as in this US-originated version, or yeast-risen, which is the more traditional. In that form they may be directly compared with the German Stollen (the plain form) or the Italian Panettone which is much lighter in texture and more cake-like.
Julekage is common throughout most Scandinavian countries.
Preparation time:
ca. 20 min
Grade of difficulty:
easy
Calories per portion:
n/a
Reference: Scandinavian christmas cake recipe
Recipe type: xarchivex
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