English christmas cupcake

18 servings
60 days 19 hours

In England, this traditional fragrant pastry is traditionally made at Christmas. Moreover, they start long - in
1. 5-2 months (ideally) to enjoy the delicious spicy taste of this cupcake on a holiday. At first glance, it may seem that the process is complicated, but it is not. It's pretty simple. The main thing is to keep proportions. A good recommendation will be to prepare all the ingredients in advance, weigh them thoroughly and arrange them into separate bowls. So, is it all set? Then we start!
1. Dry fruits (raisins, cherries and currants) with mine, dry with a clean towel and soak in a small amount of brandy a day before the start of making cupcake. This step is optional and you can soak dried fruits in warm water 30 minutes before cooking, but if possible, it is worth doing it in brandy.

2. Turn on the oven to heat up to 150 degrees Celsius. The baking temperature is low because this cupcake needs a long and slow baking process. It is filled with dried fruits, sugar, brandy, so at high temperatures the cupcake will burn outside, and inside it will remain unheated .

3. A round deep shape of 24 cm in diameter is lined with two layers of baking parchment. We also wrap the walls of the form with a double strip of parchment in a circle. This is necessary so that the cupcake does not burn .

4. In a large bowl, combine currants, raisins, cherries, candied fruits and half of the lemon zest together. We mix everything. Then we sift through the flour, and also pour salt and all species.

5. In a separate large bowl, mix the butter of room temperature with sugar together. Beat everything with a whisk until fluffy, add the remaining lemon zest and beat again. Then we pour in slightly beaten eggs, in parts, beating well after each addition. We take our time, we do it slowly and neatly.

6. Add half of the flour mixture to the oil mixture, mix everything until homogeneous. And then add the remaining flour mixture, mix everything well again. Then we pour in the brandy and get in the way again.

7. We shift the dough into the prepared form, shake the form, you can even knock it on the table a couple of times so that there are no voids left. We align the surface of the future cupcake with the reverse side of the spoon. In the center, we make a recess by pressing the dough. During baking, the dough will rise there and the surface of the finished cupcake will be even.

8. If the parchment accidentally gets dirty with dough, use a paper towel to clean it, otherwise during the baking process this dough will begin to burn. This will not affect the taste of the dough, but it can spoil the aromate.

9. We put the mold in the oven also on a double layer of parchment (if the oven is gas, you need to make sure that the flame is far enough). Bake the cupcake for 4 hours 30 minutes.

2. 5 hours after the start of baking, cover the cupcake with a layer of parchment paper so that it does not brown much. Important moment! Do not look into the oven too often, otherwise the cupcake may lose its form. 10 Time has passed - we check the cupcake for readiness using a wooden stick or a regular knife. It's easy to do it. We insert a stick (knife) into the center of the cupcake, then remove it and look: if the stick (knife) remained dry, the dough did not stick to them, the cupcake is ready. Externally, the cupcake should turn dark brown, and should also rise. If the skewer (knife) is not clean, increase the baking time. 1
1. We remove the finished muffin from the oven and let it cool right in the mold for an hour, then remove the muffin and leave until completely cooled on the grill. Then pierce the muffin with a fork over the entire surface and pour brandy (60 ml). Wrap the cupcake in parchment paper, put it in a sealed tin. Every two weeks, soak the cupcake with 60ml brandy. When the holiday comes, serve the cupcake to the table, having previously decorated its surface to taste (you can simply sprinkle it with powdered sugar) with cheese cut (usually cheddar) and wine. Merry Christmas!