Christmas Cake Ice-Cream

Several years ago we ran a competition that asked people about their Christmas cake traditions, the results were a total surprise. Literally hundreds of the respondents admitted to buying, receiving or baking Christmas cakes every year religiously when not a single member of the household actually like Christmas cake. This prompted me to develop a recipe to use up all that Christmas cake in a way that retained the spicy, festive qualities but had none of the cloying heaviness that people seemed to object to so strongly. This festive dessert is really easy and is simply delicious- even for the cake haters.

Ingredients

• 300g Christmas cake – bought or homemade
• 2 Tbsp of spirits such as brandy or rum or alternatively use orange juice
• 2 litre tub of store bought french vanilla ice cream
• strawberries and Hershey’s kisses to decorate

Method

Line a metal loaf tin with sufficient plastic cling film to completely line the tin and fold over the top. Remove ice cream from freezer and allow to soften but not liquefy.

In a large bowl crumble the cake and sprinkle with the spirits or juice, tip the ice-cream into the bowl and gently fold the crumbled cake through the ice cream.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and tap on the bench to fill corners. Fold excess cling film over the top and return to the freezer to refreeze.

Before serving slice the strawberries in half but do not remove the stalks.

To serve, turn the ice-cream out onto a large serving platter, remove cling film and pile strawberry halves and Hershey’s kisses along the top and at the sides of the ice cream. Slice into thick slices.

Tips

Alternatively you could serve the ice-cream with mixed fresh berries, or drizzled with a berry coulis.