I've been meaning to post this for ages, in fact since Christmas...
This is adapted from my mother’s family Christmas
cake recipe, switching the fruits for less-sugary ones (so, for example, no
candied peel) and removing all added sugar.
It made a lighter cake than usual but one with a really good fruity
flavour and fantastic golden colour. It
kept well and still tasted good after a week.
Unlike a conventional Christmas cake, though, I don’t think it would
respond well to being made a month in advance.
4oz/100g blanched whole almonds, chopped
4oz/100g raisins
8oz/200g dried apricots, chopped
2oz/50g dried mango, thinly sliced
2oz/50g dried cherries
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 tea bag, made into tea (can be herbal or normal tea, but NB
no milk! I used a spicy rooibos blend)
4oz butter
4 tsp xylitol
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
4 tsp ground mixed spice
4 heaped tsp baking powder, sieved
2 cups No 1 baking mix
Whole blanched almonds, whole walnuts or pecans and whole dried
apricots to decorate
Soak raisins and apricots in tea, and dried mango in lemon
juice, for at least a couple of hours.
Cream butter and xylitol together and beat in the eggs one by one along
with the vanilla. Drain the soaked
fruit, reserving some of the remaining liquid, and stir the soaked fruit, the
cherries and the chopped almonds into the mixture, then gradually stir in the
baking mix, spice and baking powder, adding some of the fruit soaking liquid if
necessary to get a soft, dropping consistency.
Line a medium-sized, fairly deep cake tin with greaseproof paper or baking parchment and
spoon the mixture in, level it off and decorate the top with a pattern of nuts
and dried fruit. Bake at 150 degrees C
(fan oven) for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Test with a skewer or narrow knife blade; when the blade comes out clean
it’s done. Remove and cool for 20-30
minutes in the tin before turning out onto a cake rack.
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