Store a Christmas Cake

Christmas cakes are often made well ahead of the Christmas season. Not only does this save time when the busy season descends upon us, it also serves to improve the taste of the cake. As with wine, fruit cakes improve in taste as they age. And often not all of the Christmas cake gets eaten at Christmas time and this leaves the need to keep it longer. This article explains how to store a Christmas cake, whether it be prior to or after the Christmas occasion.

Steps

1. Wrap your cake in cheesecloth / muslin that has been marinated in brandy, rum, wine or fruit juice.
2. Wrap it in aluminium foil.
3. Place the wrapped cake into an airtight container. If you do not have an airtight container, you can substitute plastic wrap if necessary.
4. Keep the cake in a dry and cool place.

Tips

• If you want to keep the cake for a very long time, it is helpful to reinvigorate the cheesecloth with a new infusion of rum, juice or brandy every month, taking care to rewrap the cake as outlined above.
• A good quality apple left in the container with a stored fruit cake helps to keep the moisture in the cake. Change regularly if you are keeping the cake for a long time.
• Greaseproof paper is an alternative to cheesecloth if preferred. Obviously, this does not need marinating in liquid but you should still sprinkle juice or alcohol over the cake prior to wrapping. For this method, use two layers of grease-proof paper and then wrap with aluminium foil. Place in an airtight container.

Warnings

• Avoid the refrigerator! This can result in crystallised sugar.
• Be careful not to let aluminium foil touch the cake directly; if the cake has alcohol in it, it will pit the foil and cause reactions that can affect the cake's flavour.
• Keep an eye on the cake as the months go by; whenever it seems to be drying out, follow the Tip on adding more liquid or you may end up with a very dry and undesirable cake.

Things You'll Need

• Cheesecloth / muslin or greaseproof paper
• Brandy or rum or wine or juice
• Aluminium (aluminum) foil
• Airtight container

Related Articles

• Add Rum to Fruit Cake
• Make a Christmas Cake
• Make Christmas Tree Cookies
• Make a Christmas Pudding
• String Popcorn on a Christmas Tree

Sources and Citations

See also

• Make a Christmas Pudding
• Make a Fairy House with Food
• Make a Candy Cane
• Build a Cupcake Snowman
• Make a Chocolate Yule Log
• Make a Christmas Cake
• Make Sugar Cookie Dough for Children
• Make a Sipping Snowman

What links here

• Cook a Roman Sweet Cake
• Decorate a Christmas Tree
• Make Jamaican Rum Cake
• Make a Christmas Cake