I am making several christmas cakes (for almost the first time really)..with the first batch I soaked the fruit in rum & have been feeding the cakes with brandy.

1. Does it matter that I am using both rum & brandy?

2. If I start with brandy with my next cakes would it be ok if I switched to feeding them with whisky, if I run out of brandy?

3. I've also thought of buying a bottle of ginger wine, would it be ok to add that too?

4.Can anyone recommend which alcohol is really best to use & does anyone use anything other than rum, brandy or whisky?

5. What result does the ginger wine give?

Hope this makes sense.  Thanks & best wishes to all.

I have a recipe where I soak my berries in a raspberry/grand marnier sauce,,but  I am not a rum nor brandy fan.  Rum & Brandy do seem seasonal though.

I don't honestly know if I would switch up the liquors in the cakes.  You can get a flavor that does not compliment the other used.  I just had a person order rum raisin bread pudding, I not only soaked the raisins in the rum but I put some in the bread pudding also.  He said he wanted whisky sauce for it also and I had to let them know that I thought a whiskey sauce would not be a good flavor with the rum.  I ended up making butter rum sauce and it tasted wonderful!  Just my opinion.

Brandy is made from grapes.  Whiskey is made from grain.  So I'm not Sure how interchangeable they are.

I've always used brandy, my husband's Courvousier works very well too .

Aahha  thanks for this idea...I will look out for a mini bottle of  grand marnier to try!  Best wishes.

ATriple Sec & Contreau are cheaper orange liqueurs

My mum always uses Grand Marnier on hers every year. I wouldn't use whisky - I'm not sure it really pairs very well with the fruit, and also I can't stand the stuff personally!

The alcohol should be something with flavour - a good port, sherry, Marsala, Muscat, rum, brandy, schnapps, or a mixture .. 

Every two weeks, for twelve weeks, unwrap and douse with 1-2 oz alcohol, depending on cake size and thickness. After that time, any additional alcohol does not add to the fruitcake flavour. It is fully loaded and ready to go. 

I'm currently dousing my Christmas cake with butterscotch schnapps - last year was marsala .. 

Mmmmmm I have marsala and cointreau in the pantry.... I will maybe try those this year.

I soak my fruit in port and brandy.

Then I 'feed' it with brandy.

I personally can't stand whiskey - although I fully appreciate that's just a personal preference and I don't know if there's a right or wrong.

However, I wonder if whiskey might be slightly too strong a flavour?  Or would that just be because I don't like it?

I just baked my first ever fruitcake!  I had soaked the fruit in rum for a week.  When you feed the cake, do you just brush it on with a pastry brush, or poke holes and drizzle?  Thanks for any tips.  And can I use the reserved rum to feed it? (I saved it after straining the fruit).

Liz

Thank you Relznik!

Liz

Last year we used Amaretto to soak the fruit and also feed the cake. Being an almond liquer it complimented the other flavours beautifully. Gorgeous, same again this year.

Thank you for the amaretto suggestion - I will try that the next time I make them.

Liz