Christmas cake recipe: Star baker at Yorkshire Women's Institute reveals her Christmas cake recipe

Val says there may still be time for others to have a go at baking their first Christmas Cake, but that she has always found the best time is as early as possible, and to keep feeding the cake with brandy often from baking until consumption at Christmas.

“I bake my Christmas Cakes early because they mature for longer. I make them in October and if you put holes in with a skewer and pour brandy in now and again it makes it even better. I put brandy into the mix as well.

“My cakes can be quite potent,” Val flashes a smile. “I enjoy putting in as much brandy as I can, but it’s also about using the right ingredients, such as any good butter, for me it has to be butter not margarine, and dark brown sugar. You must always remember it has to be plain flour too, as you don’t want it rising. I also use eight eggs because my aim is for it to be rich. Sometimes people put nuts in, but I don’t like them in a Christmas cake.

Val has built up quite a reputation around Cranswick, through her local Women’s Institute and more lately at Driffield Show, and says she learned everything she knows from her mother-in-law, Sarah.

“I have no qualifications,” says Val. “Apart from School of Sarah. When Hubert and I got married Sarah lived here too and she was a wonderful baker. You had to be in those days because there weren’t the shops there are today, not around here anyway.

“Hubert had lost his dad the year before we got married and Sarah was baking for everybody. I used to watch her, that’s all I did. Sarah took me to Cranswick WI when I was 21 and I’ve now been a member for 63 years. It has been wonderful being involved and we have around 30-40 members today including a few younger ones.

“At WI recently I had a lady say that she had never baked a cake in her life, and I thought, ‘How have you existed?’ Baking is really so easy. Anybody can read a recipe, mix things up and put it in the oven. After watching Sarah I started looking at other recipes and then started messing about with my own variations.

“I’ve put Sarah’s recipe into recipe books for church and if anybody ever asks, I give them it. I’ve also had times when I’ve been the regular recipe writer for some local publications and about five years ago I was asked to judge the baking at Driffield Show.

Val says her baking and her cooking was, and still is, although to a lesser extent now, an essential part of her life on the farm.

“I had four boys and their dad to feed and they had hollow legs, so I had to be able to bake and cook. I’ll never forget when we first got married Hubert said, ‘Shall we have a chicken for dinner?’

“When I said ‘yes’, he said, ‘Well, you’ll have to go and kill it and pluck it yourself because if you don’t we’re not going to eat.’ I had no idea, but I soon learned. Throwing me in at the deep end like that was good training. I still bake biscuits for the boys.

One of Val’s favourites to make is her raspberry roulade. She’s also well known in the area for her Yorkshire Curds.

“When we have a party at the WI I always take raspberry roulades and there’s never anything left. They’re so easy to make. I also love making Yorkshire Curd Cheesecake. I used to make the curd from our own cows’ milk when we had our dairy herd.

“Janet Foreman of Foreman’s Garage runs a monthly village market and the WI always has the cake stall. I’m always there and I usually bake about a dozen fruit pies, ginger loaves, buns and tray bakes. At the Christmas market I do different things because people will buy such as mince pies by the dozen.

Val wasn’t born in a rural area. She’s from Hull originally.

“I was born in Lee Smith Street off Hedon Road. When war came mother couldn’t stand the bombs and picked the first bus going out of Hull. We ended up at Market Weighton where she knocked on a door and they took us in, where we stayed two years before going to Driffield. We went back to Hull when my mother decided she wanted to be a midwife and trained at Hedon Road Maternity Hospital.

“I was at Craven Street School, passed my scholarship, my 11-plus and then mum decided she wanted to go back to Driffield. I got into Bridlington High School. I used to go to local dances and Hubert sat next to me at the Town Hall in Driffield in 1956 and that was it. I remember us going to watch The Platters and Buddy Holly in Hull.

As well as Val’s renown in the baking world she also played tennis for many years.

“I played until I was 77. Hubert and I played mixed doubles together in the Driffield League. We used to do pretty well.

Perhaps unsurprisingly Val was also noted for her glorious suppers.

Val’s Christmas Cake Recipe

Ingredients: 1 lb Butter; 1 lb Dark Brown Sugar; 1 lb Plain Flour; 2 lbs Currants; 1 lb Raisins;

8 ozs Sultanas; 4 ozs Cherries Chopped; 4 ozs Ground Almonds; 8 Eggs; Measure of Brandy.

Method: Place well mixed mixture into greased and lined 9” tin. Bake for 3 hours on low oven 120 degrees. Can soak fruit in cold tea overnight if liked.