Experienced bakers, please: 1st time doing Xmas cakes. Do I need a pan of water (not real bain marie) on lower rack?

Am baking hefty Xmas cake in two loaf tins. Never made recipe. Suddenly got afraid of wasting all those costly ingredients on cakes that dry out. Water on lower rack sprang to mind. Am I correct to do it? In oven now; I'll google around if nobody is answering.

sydney
  • Posted by: sydney
  • December 18, 2016
  • 2053 views
  • 9 Comments

9 Comments

sydney
sydney December 19, 2016
Barbara, They did work out well and are delicious. I recommend this recipe. Very moist, gingerbready cake, and the spices, fruit, booze pile on the flavours. Plus no Radioactive Red or Garish Green commercial cherries :-) Cheers!
 
drbabs
drbabs December 19, 2016
Oh, that's wonderful. I'm so happy for you.
 
sydney
sydney December 18, 2016
Thanks, Barbara, was great to see Kitchen Butterfly's recipe. I went through lots of recipes before I settled on Serious Eats' version http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/12/best-fruitcake-ever-modern-fruitcake-recipe.html and I made some dried fruit AND candied fruit in preparation (plus buying lots more, plus nuts, plus booze...). Fruitcake is NUTS!
 
drbabs
drbabs December 18, 2016
What a lot of work. I hope they turn out well.
 
drbabs
drbabs December 18, 2016
I've looked at a bunch of recipes and I don't see anyone putting water in the oven. The most important thing to make sure it doesn't dry out is to take it out as soon as the tester doesn't have crumbs on it. Painting it with syrup after it comes out of the oven will probably help with moisture, too. Here's a recipe with a rum syrup that might work for you:
http://www.saveur.com/best-fruitcake-recipe
 
sydney
sydney December 18, 2016
Thanks, Barbara :-) I'm watching carefully. Glad to hear you didn't run across any bains maries. A boozy syrup is a great idea if anything goes awry. I got the first-time jitters when it went into the oven!
 
drbabs
drbabs December 18, 2016
I don't blame you! Kitchen Butterfly is an experienced baker. Here is her recipe with tips for storing it after baking: https://food52.com/recipes/65785-my-fruitcake
 
drbabs
drbabs December 18, 2016
What is Xmas cake?
 
sydney
sydney December 18, 2016
Fruitcake
 
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