How do I stop christmas cake from rising in the centre and cracking?

bandjr4,

Do you want to be hung up by your thumbs?!!

That's what usually happens to the first person to mention Christmas in November.

Oops! Wonder what happens to the second person to mention it?!! :p

LOL well Bluerose my sweet I think we need to watch this space to find out ;) I don't make ~~~~~~ cake for the pure fact I flipping hate fruit cake I just go to marks and spencer and buy a chocolate ganache cake lol

Bandjr4: Fruit Cake UGGGGGGHHHHHHH, pooey! To keep it from cracking, Don't make it!! Curlybenswife: Chocolate Cake MMMmmmmmmmm, Now we're talking!! Those Fruit cakes should be outlawed, I thought that by 2007 we'd all get the point they just plain suck! When my granny use to give me and my sis some, even the dog wouldn't eat it, when I tried bribing him under the table!! And Bluerose as for the second person... lol

My granny used to make them too but she put sixpences in, you risked your teeth biting into that I can tell you!! ;)

My Granny makes a Rum Cake instead of the traditional fruit cake. That works for me:) She also makes bread pudding... personally you can't go wrong with bread and eggs... but that is just me.

No fruit cake for me. I'll be behind curlybenswife at Marks & Spencer. That chocolate ganache cake thingy sounds delicious.

My grandmother used to wrap the outside of her cake tin in an old dishtowel cut to the depth of the tin that she had dampened and secured it with a clothespin. She said it kept the tin from getting too hot too quickly and making the center rise out of proportion with the cake. I used that method on a birthday cake and it worked. I have also seen Wilton wraps in Wal-Mart in the cake decoration aisle that essentially do the same thing.

I have also heard of putting your cake tin in a larger roaster and filling the roaster partially with water. I believe it is the same concept, which is keeping the tin evenly heated throughout cook time.

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Originally Posted by Tuscany

My Granny makes a Rum Cake instead of the traditional fruit cake. That works for me:) She also makes bread pudding...personally you can't go wrong with bread and eggs....but that is just me.

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See this is why it's always good to have both sets of Grannies, My Portuguese granny went the Rum way too!! Salute!! :p

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Originally Posted by lovelesspa

See this is why it's always good to have both sets of Grannies, My Portugese granny went the Rum way too!!!!!! Salute!!!!!:p

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Yeah but the funny thing is that my Rum Cake Granny is English. She serves her rum cake with tea and blueberry scones (now those are yummy)