A change from the classic cherry & brandy Christmas cake, this cake is amazing and is well worth trying. I sold lots of these in the café last year.
The ingredients make a large 20cm cake. You will need a deep dish, preferably one with a loose bottom.
Ingredients:
125g raisins
125g sultanas
150g dried apricots, finely chopped
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
150ml Cointreau
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
175g butter
175g soft brown sugar
3 large eggs
125g plain flour
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Soak the raisins, sultanas and chopped apricots in the Cointreau, orange juice and the vanilla extract for at least 2 days. On the second day, give everything a good stir to make sure that all the fruit is covered in the delicious liquid.
When you are ready to bake the cake, pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees/130 degrees fan and grease your cake tin and line it with baking paper.
Mix the butter and sugar together until you get a light, fluffy mixture. Then add the eggs, flour and the spices and mix together thoroughly. Add the soaked fruit and all the liquid and stir again.
Pour the cake mix into your cake tin and bake for 1 hour 40 minutes. Check it is ready by inserting a skewer into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready. Fruit cakes are temperamental and it may need another 10 minutes in the oven.
Let the cake cool completely in the tin, to allow it to settle and firm up. Pour 2 tablespoons of Cointreau slowly over the top of the cake, allowing it to seep into the sponge. Then store it in an airtight tin. You can eat the cake immediately, but it will be better if you leave it for a couple of weeks, for the flavours to mature.
If you want to decorate the cake with marzipan and icing, cover the cake with a thin layer of orange marmalade, to give the marzipan something to stick to. When you have rolled the marzipan over the cake, sprinkle it with a tiny bit of water, to give the royal icing something to stick to.
The cake will literally last for months, if kept in an airtight tin. Enjoy!
Comments