Christmas is a-Coming, the Cook is Getting Fat
As the recipes are fairly long, I've posted my two favourites here and put a link to them in the group. So, even if you're not signed up on Ravelry (why not?!) you can still check them out.
Boiled Fruit Cake
Super easy, moist and delicious. Use any standard mug as your cup measure (my cup = 300ml/10 fl oz).
In a large saucepan place
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 3 cups fruit (I use 1 c raisins, 1 c sultanas, 100g candied peel and rest of cup topped up w/ currants)
- 6 oz butter (or margarine)
Boil and leave to cool.
Stir in
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups self-raising flour (or plain flour + 1 T baking powder)
- spice (optional) (I use 1 t ea cinnamon & nutmeg,
½ t allspice) - 2 cups glace cherries
Pour into a 9" loose-bottomed cake tin and bake on the middle shelf at 150°C/300°F for 2 hrs 15 minutes.
FRUIT! Fruit CakeOh, I love this cake! Adapted from LaVerle McCandless' family recipe (five generations and going strong).
For my British readers, 1 cup = 8 fluid ounces = an average teacup;
1/4 cup = 4 tablespoons
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 cups chopped pecans
- 1 lb candied cherries
- 1 lb candied pineapple
- ½ lb chopped dates
- 6 oz/170g butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 eggs, beaten
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp grated lemon rind
Grease and flour the pans, then line the bottoms with greaseproof paper.
Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Coarsely chop the fruit and nuts and then stir them into the flour.
Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Stir in the beaten eggs, vanilla and lemon juice. Stir in the lemon rind. Combine with the fruit and nuts.
Bake the tube pan at 140ºC/275º F for 1½ hours
Bake the other pans at 120ºC/250ºF for 1½ hours
(You may find that some butter leaches out of the cake – just pour it off, the cake will be fine. I’ve already reduced the amount of butter the original recipe called for; you may want to experiment with even less)
When cooled, wrap in cling film, then in foil.
To quote LaVerle:
If you want to spike the fruit cake, cover a plate with cling film, place the fruit cake on it and pour a shot glass (2 Tbsp) of rum, whiskey or what you like over the fruit cake and let sit for a day. Then wrap and store in fridge or freezer. Be sure you mark these spiked cakes as spiked.
Slice fairly thin as this is a very rich fruit cake. I can almost guarantee that this fruit cake will not be used as a hockey puck or door stop.
2 Comments:
At 17 November, 2008 13:47, Sus said…
I've tried to get behind the fruitcake as a food, but I just haven't been successful yet! ;p Glad you're finding new recipes you love. Have fun preparing for a simplified Christmas (although new grandbabies still get royally spoiled, I assume)!
At 17 November, 2008 16:59, jmk said…
The new grandbabies are actually helping the cause. We've told all the previous generations that we hope they like what they get this year - because next year it's just the babies!
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