Rich fruit cake
A rich fruit cake that is ideal for a traditional Christmas cake, or any special occasion where a good quality fruit cake is required.This recipe is for a 20cm (8in) cake, for quantities and timing of other sizes see body of post.
Servings: 20
Equipment
- 20cm (8in) deep round cake tin or a 18cm (7in) deep square cake tin
- baking parchment or greaseproof paper
- scissor
- large mixing bowls
- Measuring jug )
- stand or hand held mixer
- sieve
- spatula
- cake belt (see post for how to make a DIY cake belt)
Ingredients
- 400 g (14oz) currants
- 225 g (8oz) sultanas
- 225 g (8oz) raisins
- 200 ml (7floz) sweet white wine or sherry
- 250 g (9oz) butter, softened
- 250 g (9oz) dark muscovado sugar
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon black treacle
- 300 g (10½oz)plain flour
- 2 teaspoons mixed spice
- 75 g (3oz) blanched almonds, chopped
- 75 g (3oz) glace cherries, quartered
- 100 g (3½oz) mixed peel
- 1 orange or 1 lemon finely grated zest
Instructions
- Place the currants, sultanas and raisins in a bowl. Pour over the sweet wine or sherry. Cover and allow to stand for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.
- Grease and line 20cm (8in) round deep cake tin. Preheat the oven to 160°C/150°fan/gas mark 3.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Make sure you beat out any lumps in the sugar. Gradually beat in the eggs, beating well after each addition. Next beat in the treacle.
- Sift the flour and mixed spice into the bowl and fold in.
- Add the soaked fruit, almonds, cherries, peel and lemon or orange zest and mix well.
- Spoon into the prepared tin and level the top, then make a slight dip in the middle.
- Bake for 1 hour, then reduce the oven temperature to 140°C/130°C fan/gas mark 1 and cook for a further 2¼ hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Notes
Cook's Tips
It is very easy to miss an ingredient out so I recommend that you weigh all the ingredients before starting.
If you do not have time to leave the fruit to soak before starting you can speed this up by heating the alcohol in a saucepan until it begins to bubble, then add the fruit. Cover and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Then commence making the cake.
Cooking times will vary from oven to oven, especially for the larger cakes. To check if the cake is cooked insert a skewer into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean it is cooked. If the cake begins to brown too much on top before the centre is cooked cover with a disc of parchment or foil.
Store
Once cold wrap in fresh baking parchment or greaseproof paper and over wrap in foil. Store in a cool dry place.