Ingredients
- 9 ounces (250 g) bread dough from the baker’s shop
- 90 ounces (2.5 kg) flour
- 35 ounces (1 kg) sugar
- 26 ounces (750 g) banha, this is pork fat
- 17 ounces (500 g) butter
- 1 ounce (25 g) erva-doce, this is Anise herbs, mashed and sifted
- 1.75 ounce (50 g) canela (cinnamon)
- 1 ounce (25 g) cravinho da India, (Cloves in powder form)
- 17 ounces (500 g) walnut, cut into halves
- 9 ounces (250 g) ground almonds
- 1.75 ounce (50 g) candied lemon peel, cut into cubes
- 60 ounces (1.8 l) pure honey
- 5 tablespoons of baking soda, dissolved in the wine
- 1 cup of Madeira wine
- juice and zest of 4 oranges
Directions
1. One day before making the cake, buy the bread-dough at the baker’s shop, sprinkle a little bit of flour on the dough, put it in a towel and keep it in a warm place until the next day.
2. Put the baking soda into the Madeira wine, dissolve. In a pan warm up the honey, mix the butter and pork fat (if not available, just use butter), dissolve. Let this mixture cool.
3. Sift flour into a bowl, mix in the sugar, make a well and put the bread dough into it. Now work the flour-sugar mixture into the bread dough. As soon as this is well joined, start to incorporate little by little the (tepid) honey-fat mixture. Add some of the candied lemon peel, as well as the Madeira wine, orange juice and orange zest, anise, cinnamon, and cloves.
4. Incorporate and knead thoroughly until the dough doesn’t stick to the bowl. Cover the dough with a towel and put it in a warm spot. Keep it in a warm place for 3-4 days.
5. Divide the dough into parts of 250g or 500g or 750 g, depending on the pans to put into the oven. This cake is made in wide, round pans which are rather low. Before going into the oven, the cake is decorated with half-walnuts, sliced almonds and the rest of the candied lemon peel.
6. Grease the baking pans. Bake about 50 minutes 355 °F (180 °C). Let cool down before taking it out of the baking pan.
This Madeira Honey Cake Christmas recipe makes 8 servings. Preparation time circa varies, anticipate 40 minutes in the beginning. The Madeira Honey Cake needs to then rest for 3-4 days. Baking time 50 minutes. Madeira Honey Cake Christmas recipe difficulty level very hard.
Tags: Christmas, Christmas Recipes, Madeira Honey Cake
I just love fruit cakes. I know a lot of people aren’t a big fan, but my wife loves making them and I love eating them!
Fruit cakes are the specialty of my grandmother, she bakes lots of fruit cakes. Yummy!
i love those german fruit cakes because they have more nuts in it.
fruit cakes with lots of raisins is the thing that i often much, they are great and yummy