Christmas Cake Tales...continued and recipe included

This is a picture of the picture from Fresh magazine

I take back what I wrote yesterday about being a little disappointed in my Christmas Cake project.  It tasted even better today.  I guess I should have read the foot note at the bottom of the recipe that mentioned…leave it to mature.  As I said, it was packed two pounds of fruit and three sticks (12 oz) of butter so there was no way it was going to hit the bin.  The cake was like a fruit brick and I didn’t think it held much promise.  But today the moistness of the cake is already developing.  I never made a fruit cake like this before, so I completely jumped the gun in offering my totally impatient/fruit cake making ignorance.  It is going to be lovely (ooh, gosh, I hope that’s not my fruit cake making ignorance again? It can’t be.)  I  now see how the rich fruit taste (laden with rum) will be a nice compliment to the sweet marzipan and icing when this whole project is over.  I’ll post the ingredients and directions for decorating the Christmas cake in a few weeks time.  But its basically rolled out ready-made marzipan and icing draped over the cake then decorated with sugar-dusted berries.  As the picture from the magazine shows, it’s a simple pretty looking cake.  It’s Christmassy and I am all excited again!

Ingredients

Makes 1 10inch square cake pan

8 oz dried apricots, finely chopped

8 oz golden raisins

8 oz dried cranberries

8 oz raisins

1 cup dry sherry

Juice of one lemon

Freshly grated orange peel from one medium orange

12 oz (3 sticks) butter, softened

1-½ cups light brown sugar

6 large eggs

1-½ cups flour

¾ cups ground almond

3 tablespoons molasses

1-teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons cinnamon, ground

2 teaspoons nutmeg, ground

A weekly 2 tablespoon douse of brandy

Preheat oven to 300°F.  In a medium bowl, soak apricots, raisins, cranberries and golden raisins in sherry.  Whisk the flour, almonds, cinnamon and nutmeg in a separate bowl, set aside.  Butter a 10 inch square cake tine and line it with parchment paper allowing the paper to over lap each edge of the pan.  Beat the sugar, orange peel and butter in a large bowl using an electric mixer until light and creamy.   Beat in eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly.  The mixture will look curdled.  Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed, until incorporated.  Fold in the soaked fruit making sure the fruit is distributed throughout the batter.  Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake on the middle rack in oven for 2 ½ hours.  Begin checking cake after 1-¾ hours, it should feel firm in the middle and a tester inserted should come out clean and dry. 

Cool on a wire rack in pan for ten minutes.  Invert pan on wire rack, remove parchment paper and leave to cool completely.  Wrap the cake in parchment paper and a double layer of aluminum foil.  Store in an airtight container so the cake can mature.  Each week unwrap cake, poke holes in the top using a thin skewer and “feed” it with 2 tablespoons of brandy.

Recipe adapted from Fresh Magazine