Baked a cake. It's a variation on a traditional plum cake / fruit cake.
I've made versions of it a few times but preserving it by pouring a'liberal amount of brandy over it' as per the book, by sticking a fork up its arse and dribbling over, has either resulted in no preservation qualities above normal, or an inedible bottle of Courvoisier suspended in raisins.
Any idea or tips for amount and impregnation techniques? It's very fruit heavy with figs/prunes/cherries/mixed fruit and a classic sugar/butter/egg mix with only 175g of flour, and is 8" x 3", with fruit already soaked in about 150ml of brandy prior to cooking - been cooling for 3 hours now.
Ta 🙂
About a tablespoon or two of booze at a time. Apply this weekly for several weeks to get the preservation you need. Too much at once makes a puddingy mess.
Ah, right. Thanks. I don't have that option.
So I guess 'pour a liberal amount of brandy over it' is just bad advice?
Just drink the brandy and throw the cake at the birds.
Joshvegas does that only happen after an unsuccessful impregnation?
If you drink all the brandy the impregnation never goes well.
can you not seal it? marzipan and icing stylee?
If you use a pastry brush to paint the brandy over the surface of the cake (and repeat every few days), it shouldn't go soggy (you don't need to pickle the cake in booze, the sugar stops it going off)
Pastry brush is an inspired idea. Thanks 🙂