This rich fruit cake uses a traditional method that isn’t as widely practised these days as it once was – it’s a “boiled” fruit cake – a very easy method. The end result is a lovely cake that keeps well if stored correctly in an air-tight container and even improves while it keeps.
Makes: Quite a large deep cake (about 12 – 15 slices)
Level: Easy
Time: Hands on: 10 – 15 min. On the hob: 20 min. Oven time: 70* – 90 min then cooling and decorating: 30 min. (*Check at 70)
Need: A 20cm/8” round tin, ideally with a loose bottom
Ingredients
- 175g/6oz Demerara Sugar or Light brown sugar
- 325g/11oz mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants and/or cranberries at Christmas)
- 50g/1¾oz chopped apricots
- 50g/1¾oz mixed dried peel
- 300ml/10fl oz water
- 75g/2½oz glace cherries, quartered
- 125g/4½oz butter or margarine (or half of each)
- 1 Egg, beaten
- ½ tsp almond extract
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 275g/9½oz self raising flour
- 50g/1¾oz ground almonds
- 25g/1oz flaked almonds (optional)
- pinch of salt
To decorate (optional)
- about 25 whole almonds
- Some diluted apricot jam to glaze
- about 10 – 12 glace cherries, halved
Method
1. Grease and fully line the tin* Pre heat the oven to 180°C / fan 160°C / 350°F / Gas 4. * I recommend lining the inside of the tin as well as the bottom, preferably above the edges of your tin. I also use wetted “bake easy” bands around my tins. The cake will be in the oven for a longish bake, so these precautions are worthwhile.
2. Put the sugar, dried fruit, chopped apricots, peel, water, cherries, butter and/or margarine into a saucepan. Bring it to the boil then simmer for 20 min. Set aside to cool.
3. When the above mixture has cooled, add in the beaten egg and the extracts and stir in well. Sift in the flour, then add the ground almonds, flaked almonds (if using) and salt. Mix well.
4. Spoon or pour it all into the prepared cake tin, smooth the top and arrange almonds on the top.
5. Bake for 70 – 85 min – until risen and golden brown. Check at 60 min and cover with foil if necessary. Leave for 5 – 10 min before turning out. Brush on some warm and diluted apricot jam, add cherries or other decorations and glaze again.
I hope you enjoy this lovely cake. If you want more cake recipes click this link, or have a look at my site for lots of other great recipes, both sweet and savoury. Below are a few that I’d love you to try:
Rhubarb, Almond and White Chocolate Cake
Date and Walnut Challenge Cake
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Christmas version
I was so pleased with this fruit cake that I decided to use it for our next Christmas Cake and here it is. I’ll give you an updated list of ingredients, a few notes about any changes in the method and a suggestion for decoration. I know not everyone will opt for the dried and glazed fruit style. (I wish others in my family loved marzipan as much as I do, but they don’t, so no marzipan. Likewise, I find fondant a bit sickly, so no fondant. Apart from that, Happy Christmas.)
Ingredients
- 175g/6oz Demerara Sugar or light brown sugar
- 325g/11oz mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants, cranberries)
- 50g/1¾oz chopped apricots
- 50g/1¾oz mixed dried peel
- 50g/1¾oz glace or sugared ginger
- 275ml/9½fl oz water
- 75g/2½oz glace cherries, quartered
- 125g/4½oz butter or margarine (or half of each)
- 1 Egg, beaten
- ½ tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 – 5 tsp of Christmas spices (ginger, cinnamon, all spice, mace, nutmeg, mixed spice, cardamom etc.)
- 50ml/1¾fl oz brandy, rum, sherry or other alcohol (or leave out)
- 275g/9½oz self raising flour
- 50g/1¾oz ground almonds
- 50g/1¾oz flaked almonds
- pinch of salt
Method
1. As original
2. As original
3. Add the egg, the extracts, the ground spices and the alcohol into the cooled fruit mixture and stir in well. Sift in the flour, then add the ground almonds, flaked almonds and salt. Mix well.
4. As original, but without any almonds on top.
5. Bake for 70 – 85 minutes – until risen and golden brown. Check at 60 min and cover with foil if necessary. Leave for 5 – 10 minutes before turning out.
NB If you make this cake ahead of Christmas you’ll have time to “feed it” with a “liquid” of your choice. Brandy works well. Sherry is OK and Amoretto is super. Take your pick. If you prefer non-alcoholic, Orange juice is OK, but use less and use it less often. Stab the cake all over with a toothpick and brush on the liquid several times in the weeks before decorating.
6. To decorate, I turned the cake over so that the top would be flat. I made a glaze by mixing apricot jam and sherry, most which I brushed over the whole cake then I used the rest to glaze the fruit later. As shown in the pictures, I used Apricots, figs and glace cherries halved. I also used some cranberries, but later regretted it as they didn’t seem to fit the style. Again, it’s your choice.
LATEST TWEEKS – for Christmas
This has rather become my “go to” Christmas Cake bake – partly because it’s so easy, also because there’s no need to bake it weeks or months in advance, but mainly because it’s so lovely to eat. One recent tweek is the addition of 50g of treacle prior to the initial boiling. It adds colour and richness. Below is the latest version – for Christmas. Have a look at the pictures and then I’ll give a few tips for decorating your cake.
The stars are cut outs from marzipan. I gave them a short blast with a blowtorch. I wanted variety of colour and shape so used pistachios, cherries, dried apricots and almonds. It’s important to lay out all you need before starting. It also helps if you practise on a parchment circle. I actually inverted my cake to have a flatter surface. I glazed it with a warmed apricot jam and sherry mixture before adding the decorations then glazed it again afterwards.
And, even another two. I just can’t stop making these great cakes. On the left a smaller (18cm) version covered mainly in marzipan, which I blow-torched. On the right is our family cake.
Yes, here’s yet another version: even faster, even easier, but still a lovely cake. I made it for a friend and his family the evening before he was due to visit. I used a pre-formed paper liner in my baking tin for simplicity and the stars are white fondant that I sprayed with gold lustre.
Retired Bloke on Food n stuff 