How far ahead can I make a Christmas cake or pudding?

These are the only baked goods most people make months in advance, and the reason is chemistry rather than tradition: the alcohol and sugar preserve them while the flavours mature and the texture softens.

Safety

Step by step

1. Make the cake in September or October.Two to three months gives the fruit time to soften and the flavours to settle. Made in August it can dry; made in December it tastes raw and boozy rather than rounded.
2. Soak the fruit first.Overnight at minimum, and a week is better, in brandy, rum, sherry or tea. Dry fruit added straight to the batter draws moisture out of the cake and is why some come out dry.
3. Line the tin thoroughly and bake low and slow.Double parchment inside, brown paper tied around the outside, and a low oven for several hours. A rich fruit cake at normal cake temperature burns outside and stays raw in the middle.
4. Cool completely before wrapping.Fully cold, which means several hours or overnight. Wrapping while warm traps steam against the surface and is the single cause of mould in a cake that should keep for months.
5. Wrap in parchment then foil.Parchment against the cake, foil outside it, and an airtight tin. Never foil directly against a cake with alcohol or acidic fruit — it reacts and corrodes.
6. Feed it monthly, not weekly.Skewer the top a few times and spoon over one or two tablespoons of spirit. Monthly is plenty. Overfeeding makes it soggy and can stop marzipan adhering.
7. Make the pudding at least a month ahead.Traditionally Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent, which is about five weeks out. Three months is better still. Steam it fully now, cool completely, rewrap in fresh parchment, and steam again on the day.
8. Store the pudding somewhere cool and dark.A cupboard is fine; it does not need a fridge. Check it every few weeks for any moisture on the wrapping, which is the early warning.
9. Make mincemeat two weeks to three months ahead.It needs a fortnight for the flavours to combine and keeps for months in sterilised jars in a cool place. It is the easiest of the three and the most forgiving of timing.
10. Marzipan a week before icing.Brush the cake with warmed apricot jam, apply marzipan, and leave it a week to dry before icing. Icing straight onto fresh marzipan lets the oils bleed through and stain it.
11. Have a late plan.If it is December, make the cake and feed it weekly instead of monthly, or make a lighter fruit cake that needs no maturing. A boiled-fruit cake is ready in days and is genuinely good.
12. Freeze if you have overtaken yourself.Both cake and pudding freeze well, wrapped tightly. Useful if you made them very early or made two.

Tips

• Write the date and what you fed it with on a label taped to the tin. By December nobody remembers.
• Soaking the fruit in cold tea makes an excellent alcohol-free version that still keeps well, because the sugar does most of the preserving.
• If a cake seems dry when you unwrap it, an extra feed and a fortnight will usually recover it.

Common mistakes

• Wrapping while still warm — Trapped steam condenses against the cake and it grows mould within weeks, however good the recipe was.
• Putting foil directly against the cake — The acid and alcohol react with the foil, which corrodes and taints the surface. Parchment goes next to the cake, foil outside it.

If it doesn't work

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