Recipe detail

Directions

1. Pour a small amount of milk over the yeast, add a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of flour and let the yeast rise, it takes about 10 minutes.

2. Beat the butter with a hand mixer with the remaining sugar, egg yolks, salt, lemon zest and juice and vanilla. Then add lukewarm milk and beat again. Pour the yolk mixture into the sifted flour and add the risen yeast. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes until smooth and it stops sticking to the wooden spoon. During the kneading process, the dough can be lightly dusted with flour. Then we let it rise for at least an hour, covered with a towel, until it doubles in volume.

3. Add the mixture of raisins and nuts to the risen dough, work it, roll it out and divide it into nine equal parts. We will roll out equally strong springs from those.

4. We will start knitting the Christmas tree straight on the prepared sheet always from the center - it will be pretty symmetrical. We knit the bottom layer from four strands. With the back of the hand with outstretched fingers, we make a shallow groove in the middle of the braided braid, into which we place the second layer: a braid braided from the other three strands. We knit the last layer from two strands, put it on the second layer and bend the ends under the Christmas tree.

5. Let the Christmas cake rise again on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Then brush it with a beaten egg and sprinkle with almond slices soaked in water (they won't burn during baking). Pierce the individual layers of the Christmas tree with several skewers so that the Christmas tree does not spread.
Then we bake on the above program.

6. Immediately rub the hot Christmas cake with rum mixed with 3 tablespoons of water and powdered sugar (the Christmas cake must sizzle) - it will shine and smell beautifully.