Rich Fruit Cake Recipe
Ideal for celebration cakes e.g. Christmas. This recipe is also good if you have to make a rich fruit cake last minute as it doesn’t require the weeks of maturing that some other fruit cake recipes seem to need.
250g Unsalted Butter (room temp)
250g Dark Brown Sugar
4 Eggs (room temp)
250g Plain Flour
175g Currants
175g Sultanas
175g Raisins
75g Glace Cherries (washed and halved)
75g Mixed Peel
1 Apple (peeled and grated)
50g Black Treacle
50g Chopped Almonds
2 Tsp (Heaped) Mixed Spice
1 Tsp Baking Powder
Milk
- Soak the dried fruits in alcohol (preferably over night). Alternatively, put the dried fruits in a bowl with 4-5 tbsp of water, cover in clingfilm and heat in the microwave for 30 secs, or until the fruits have plumped up.
- Preheat the (fan) oven to 140°C.
- Grease a 20cm (8inch) cake tin with melted butter and line with 2 sheets/a double thickness of baking parchment.
- In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on a medium to high speed until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs a bit at a time.
- Sieve and fold in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, mixed spice).
- Stir in the remaining ingredients, and add enough milk to bring the batter to a soft dropping consistency.
- Spoon the mixture into a the tin and level out, then brush the top with water to stop it burning.
- Cook for 2.5hrs-3hrs or until cooked through.
- Take out the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.
Posts that have used this recipe (or similar):
Christmas Cake 2011
Disco Cake
Christmas Cake 2012
Simnel Cake 2013
Scaling Recipes:
The general rule for up-scaling cake recipes is to increases the ingredient quantities by 1.5 times for the next tin size up. Below are the ingredient measurements for this Fruit Cake for different cake tin sizes (square and round):
|
6inch round 5 inch square |
7inch round 6 inch square |
8inch round 7 inch square |
9inch round 8 inch square |
|
| Unsalted Butter |
110g |
170g |
250g |
375g |
| Dark Brown Sugar |
110g |
170g |
250g |
375g |
| Eggs |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| Plain Flour |
110g |
170g |
250g |
375g |
| Currants |
80g |
120g |
175g |
260g |
| Sultanas |
80g |
120g |
175g |
260g |
| Raisins |
65g |
100g |
150g |
225g |
| Glacé Cherries |
20g |
50g |
75g |
110g |
| Mixed Peel |
20g |
50g |
75g |
110g |
| Apple |
0.5 |
0.75 |
1 |
1.25 |
| Black Treacle |
25g |
35g |
50g |
75g |
| Chopped Nuts |
25g |
35g |
50g |
75g |
| Mixed Spice |
1 Tsp |
1.5 Tsp |
2 Tsp |
2.5 Tsp |
| Baking Powder |
0.5 Tsp |
0.75 Tsp |
1 Tsp |
1.5 Tsp |
The Fondant Fancy 