Dark & stormy fruit cake
Serves 10 - 12
Easy
Prep:
Cook:
Make this Christmas cake a couple of months in advance, if you can, and feed it with rum to give it time to mature and develop deep flavour and texture
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- 1kg mixed dried fruitor mixed dried fruit with mixed peel (we used a mixture of raisins, sultanas and currants)
- 150ml spiced rumplus extra for feeding
- 250g butter
- 200g dark muscovado sugar
- 1 orangezested and juiced
- 1 lemonzested and juiced
- 175g plain flour
- 125g ground almonds
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 5 balls of stem gingerchopped
- 5 medium eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Nutrition: Per serving (12)
- kcal645
- fat26g
- saturates12g
- carbs85g
- sugars74g
- fibre3g
- protein9g
- salt0.6g
Method
step 1
Put the mixed dried fruit in a large pan with the rum, butter, sugar and citrus zest and juice. Set the pan over a medium heat, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and heat until the butter has melted. Leave to cool for 30 mins.
step 2
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2. Line a deep 20cm cake tin with a double layer of baking parchment, then wrap a double layer of newspaper around the outside and secure with string.
step 3
Tip the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and spices into a large bowl. Add the cooled fruit mix along with the syrupy liquid in the pan, then the stem ginger, eggs and vanilla. Stir with a wooden spoon until there are no pockets of flour.
step 4
Tip the mix into the tin, level the top with a spatula and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 2 hrs until cooked through and golden. Remove from the oven, poke holes into the top with a skewer and spoon over 2 tbsp rum. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
step 5
Once cool, peel off the baking parchment, then wrap in fresh parchment and store in an airtight cake tin. Feed the cake with 1-2 tbsp rum every fortnight, or up to four times until you ice it. Don’t feed the cake for the final week to give the surface a chance to dry before icing. Once iced, the cake will keep in a tin for four weeks. The uniced cake will keep in the freezer for six months.
