Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi Can you soak your fruit in orange juice rather than alcohol for Christmas cakes, and could you feed the cake orange juice rather than alcohol. There is so much conflicting advice around at the moment. thanks

Hi lwalt

It’s fine to soak your fruit in orange juice for a few days. However, personally I would not feed the Cake with it. Orange juice is a fresh produce and it will begin to ferment. It’s best to not feed it at all. Wrap your cake up in parchment paper, cling film and foil. Pop it in an airtight Cake tin and it will mature just as nicely as a fed cake. Hope this helps ?

Can you feed a cake with tea and will it be OK

Hi marrianne jean40

Personally, I would not because tea is made with water, which leaves room for bacteria to grow eventually.

I know many people do, do it without any problems at all all. Fruit cake is full of natural sugars and added sugar which acts as an antibacterial.

However, when you add tea as water, some of the water could locally, eg inside a several pieces of fruit, dilute the sugar sufficiently so that it encourages bacterial growth rather than inhibiting it.

I can only refer back to my own experience. ?