Make a Christmas cake this festive season
Enjoy with a hot cup of tea or coffee
It’s that time of year when you start thinking about making that fruity Christmas cake! This recipe is ‘plump’ with candied ginger, fig puree, dried apricots, almonds, dates and cherries. Read on and then make it yourself!
Ingredients
100g dates
100g raisins
50g sultanas
30g currents
2 tablespoons candied ginger in sugar syrup, finely cut
2 tablespoons fig puree
95g dried apricots
25g red cherries
25g green cherries
300ml brandy
50g soft brown sugar
50g dark brown sugar.
100g butter
100g all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon bicarb of soda
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon salt
65g whole blanched almonds, chopped
25g fresh ginger
1 teaspoon fresh ground coffee
2 large eggs
Method
Start by cutting the dates and dried apricots into small pieces, and placing them into a container, along with the sultanas, raisins, currents, red cherries, green cherries and 100ml of brandy.
Close the container and let the fruit soak in the brandy for at least one week.
Open the container, pour a further 100ml of brandy over the fruit, close, and leave for a further week. Now you are ready to make your cake.
Preheat oven to 150°C.
Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and place baking paper on the bottom the pan.
In a standing mixer or using a hand mixer, blend the cream, butter and both brown sugars, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing in between each one, until light and fluffy. Then add the flour, bicarb, cinnamon, salt and coffee powder.
Next, add the brandy-soaked fruit and – if there is any brandy left – add that too, as well as the almonds and finely chopped ginger. Combine well.
Pour the mixture into the loaf pan, cover with parchment paper and bake for 1 hour, checking at regular intervals with a cake tester. If it comes out clean, remove the cake and leave it in the pan to cool down.
After cooling, remove from the pan, wrap in aluminium foil, followed by clingfilm and store it in the fridge.
Once a week, up until the day you slice into it, unwrap the cake and brush it all over with a little brandy and then re-wrap it and place it back in the fridge. By doing this, the fruit will develop more flavour and mature to enhance the taste of the cake.
When wrapped in foil and clingfilm and stored in the fridge, a freshly baked fruitcake will keep well for about six months, so it can be made well in advance.
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