Mid-Winter Fruit Cake
This fruit cake is similar to a Christmas cake, however, with winter being the time of year we crave heavier foods and warming spices I much prefer making this in the cooler months. The dense cake keeps well in a cake tin for many weeks and makes the perfect winter afternoon pick me up with a cup of tea. The technique for this fruit cake involves boiling the dried fruit rather than soaking which results in a very moist and dense cake.
Ingredients
- 2 oranges, juice and zest
- 600 g dried fruit - figs, prunes, raisins, currants, apricots – larger fruit roughly chopped
- about 3/4 cup boiling water
- 100 g butter
- 1/2 cup (75g) brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups (220g) plain white flour*
- ½ cup (75g) wholemeal flour*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice
- pinch of salt
- ½ cup blanched almonds
- Optional addition: 100g dark 70% chocolate, roughly chopped
- *gluten-free use 2 cups gluten-free flour mix.
Instructions
- Remove the zest from the oranges and place in a large saucepan. Juice the oranges and measure the amount of juice in a measuring jug topping up with boiling water to make a total of 1 ½ cups. Add to the pan along with the dried fruit, butter and sugar. Simmer for 10 minutes until the fruit softens. Set aside to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C. Generously grease and line a 22cm baking tin with baking paper.
- Add the eggs to the saucepan one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the flours, baking powder, spice and salt and fold into the mixture along with the blanched almonds and chopped chocolate if using.
- Scoop into the tin, smooth the top and bake for 1 ¼ hours minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean. If the top begins to brown cover with a piece of baking paper to prevent burning.
- Cool the cake in the tin. Once cool, place into a cake tin lined with baking paper and cut small slices to enjoy with a hot cuppa on these cold winter days. Store in a cool pantry and consume within 3 weeks.