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Hi I have made a naked fruit cake for my sons wedding, it’s not till october so thought it would have lots of time to mature. I soaked the fruit in 2x bottles of sherry & 2x bottles brandy for 1 week, at the end of the week all the liquid had been absorbed. It’s a 5 tier cake and I am now worried it’s too wet, it’s cooked but when I cut a spare one it just fell apart and would not slice well, what can I do I am in a panic don’t want it to ruin the big day. It’s now wrapped in grease proof and food grade plastic bags, which I have done before and it’s been fine, but I have never added so much booze in my previous cakes. I am also worried as I can’t cut into it as it willl not be being covered with marzipan & fondant etc with it being naked. Also it seems a bit too deep is there anyway I can split the cakes in half the biggest is 12″ the smallest 4″. Help do you think I need to re-bake or can it be saved, never had these problems before, why now when I want it to be perfect

It does seem a lot of alcohol , l would say for piece of mind to rebuke it again, I know it’s extra expense but in the long run it would be worth it, my recipe for the largest tier would probably be only 6 tablespoons, and I only brush once after it cools, then wrap and don’t feed again, I am sure some others will also help you decide what to do, nicky223,

Meant to say re bake not re buke.

Hi nicky223, thanks for the reply, I was think that might be my best option, there was a lot of fruit in the cakes e.g. 9lb Currants, 6lb Raising & sultanas plus 4lb cherries etc, I have made 10 cakes rangeing from 12″ to 4″ and 2 of each size, I was wondering if I unwrap them and cover them with a clean tea-towel if they might dry out a little. I usually only brush a couple of times with brandy/sherry, why did I think it a good idea to go the route I did, should have stuck to the tried and trusted. I may put them out to dry for a day or two and see what happens I feel nothing to lose at this stage only £165 lol.
Thanks again
Donna

Hi Donna

It won’t hurt to wrap them in a tea towel for a few days to draw out some of the moisture. It’s possible you’ll find the cakes have settled nicely. October is a long way off, you could still wrap them up, say for a couple of months and then examine them for quality. If you’re not happy, rebake and still have plenty of time to mature the new cakes for the wedding. This is just a suggestion.
I bake really, really boozy fruit cakes and they all feel very wet to begin with. I don’t ice them and they usually always cut well after storing for a few months.
If you search in the blog section ‘preparing for a moist christmas cake’, you can see how I make mine.

Hi madeitwithlove

I have ordered a pack of 10 linen tea towels and will wrap the cakes and leave to dry out for a couple of days and see what happens, then wrap them and leave for a couple of months as you suggested, and hope I don’t have to re-bake. I have looked at your recipe for the christmas cake, and I have scaled it up to how much alcohol you used to how much I used, I used double for the amount of fruit but all the alcohol I put in was absorbed into the fruit, I even tried to strain it to see if any would drain from the fruit but there was nothing. Well I suppose time will tell, keeping my fingers crossed.
Thanks for all the advice and help.

Donna

…. and if you do decide you have to rebake, these cakes don’t have to be wasted. They can be frozen and used at Christmas as really special gifts! Would love to hear back from you once you’ve decided what to do. x

I made Christmas candle cakes, fruitcakes with way too much alcohol, like you the fruit soaked all the alcohol but it made the cakes too moist. I covered them in fondant and I had continual leakage from under the fondant. It was the fondant breaking down due to the moisture. The cakes were almost like pudding. I would probably remake if I was you. Too much alcohol, who knew there was such a thing. Lol.

I use a boiled fruitcake recipe which has always been flop proof – however also for my son’s wedding, having fed them (i think excessively by the sounds of the conversation) now feels rather moist sort of like a pudding. I am also thinking of making another one instead of taking a chance of the fondant leaking out.