Fruit cake is a delicious and inexpensive recipe that is enjoyed all over the world. This fruit cake is a simpler and easier version of making the traditional fruit cake.
The cake is filled with loads of juicy, plump raisins and many other dried fruits. It has a beautiful aroma of spices that makes the cake more flavorful.
In this recipe, the dried fruits are boiled in liquid to soften and plump them up before being added to the cake batter. So the fruit cake is so moist, even without any prior soaking of fruits.
It is the least messy base that you can make a fruitcake, and you do not need a fruit mixer or hand mixer to make this cake. A saucepan and a wooden spoon are the prime tools to make this easy cake.
Let’s see how to make this simple and easy cake. Start by boiling the dried fruits. You are going to boil those dried fruits along with some butter, sugar, molasses and some water; you are not adding the nuts into the boiling mixture, but also the dates and plums because they are already very soft and juicy.
So you will be boiling the dried cranberries and raisins, and you can use dried fruits and nuts of your choice or adjust the measurements to your preferences.
Then, into the saucepan, add butter, sugar, molasses, and brown sugar (to give the beautiful brown dark colour and also bring a beautiful caramel flavour to your cake).
Then add in the raisins, cranberries and water and take the pan onto the stovetop. Stir it over medium heat and bring it to a boil. Once it starts to boil, simmer it for 3 to 4 minutes and then remove from the heat and let it cool down.
Meanwhile, prepare the cake pan: grease the bottom of the pan with some butter and line the bottom with parchment paper. Since fruitcakes need longer baking time, give an extra lining with parchment paper to protect the cake from over-browning.
Next, prepare the flour mix: you are going to add all of the spice flavours and baking powder to the flour. The taste of the fruit cake is mostly from the aroma of that cake, and you want that fresh aroma of spices to get into your cake batter; that is why you didn’t add all of these spices into the boiling mixture.
So add in the baking powder, cinnamon powder, brown all spices, salt and zest of one orange and lemon into the flour and give it a quick stir to make sure all of these ingredients are evenly distributed in the flour.
When the flour mix is ready, add three eggs to another bowl and lightly beat them until you get an even, smooth mixture. Next, add all of the rest of the ingredients into the saucepan.
The raisins and cranberries are plump and juicy. Add in your dates and plump them. Then add in the chopped pecans and give everything a good stir, and then add in the beaten eggs and give it a good mix.
Add the flour to this, combine everything, and make sure there are no dry patches left behind. Now your cake batter is ready to transfer to a prepared pan. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any large air spaces in between, and now it is ready to go into the oven.
Fruit cakes need to be cooked in a slow oven or a lower baking temp for a longer time, so bake it in the 320°F preheated oven for 75 to 90 minutes or until a toothpick or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
You can tint the top of the cake with aluminium foil after 40 minutes of baking to prevent any chance of over-browning at the top. After baking, remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down in the pan itself for 30 to 40 minutes and then let it finish cooling on a cooling rack.
As you are not feeding the cake with alcohol to give some flavour and make it more appealing to the eyes, brush it with apricot jam. If you slice the cake on the same day, it may seem buttery and crumbly and won’t be that flavour full so it is better to wait for the next day to slice your cake.
The smell, taste and flavour of fruit cake are so much better the next day.
Ingredients;
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