A light fruitcake
bake
As much as I love a deep, fruit-packed Christmas cake, I often wish for something lighter, with a little more cake and less fruit. Here is the answer. A shallow fruit cake, moist with ground almonds and brandy. The texture and flavour will improve if the cake is kept wrapped in foil over night.
Serves 12
Ingredients
100g soft dried apricots
50g soft dried cherries
75g soft dried figs
50g shelled pistachios
50g sultanas
200g butter
200g caster sugar
90g plain flour
75g ground almonds
4 large eggs, beaten (or chia eggs)
the grated zest and the juice of an orange
caster sugar for decoration
Method
- You will also need a shallow 20cm cake tin, the base lined with baking parchment. Set the oven at 180C/gas 4.
- Whizz the dried apricots, cherries, figs, pistachios and sultanas in a food processor briefly, so that they are roughly the size of candied peel.
- Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat till fluffy and white, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go.
- Mix the flour and almonds together. Slowly beat the eggs into the mixer, one at a time. Add a third of the almonds and flour, turn the mixer off, add another third and beat slowly and briefly, then add the final third, again mixing briefly. Too fast a mixing will make the cake heavy.
- Slowly beat in the dried fruit, the orange zest and juice, taking care not to over-mix. Put the mixture in the lined cake tin, smooth the top and bake for 45-60 minutes. Leave the cake to cool in the tin, running a palette knife around the edge to loosen it as it cools.
- Wrap the cake in foil and store overnight – this will improve the flavour and texture. Dust with deep caster sugar before serving.
Note
The recipe in the link is slightly different: no cherries or pistachios, added dates and figs - plus brandy!