For me I’ve never been an avid fan of Christmas cake, come this time of year I normally opt for a chocolate yule log, a tropical pavlova or a rich deep filled mince pie laced with brandy cream or custard. But when I was younger I have fond memories of my mum cooking up Christmas cake, the house in the lead up to Christmas would linger sweet smells of baking and the fruity alcohol. She would put brandy in it and I can’t forget those pink/red nuggets of cherries nestled in the mound of fruit cake, her’s always was moist and now I finally know her secret….
So what possessed me to make another Christmas cake this year???
Well I’ve come across Urban Fruit, dried fruit all baked naturally, who not only do dried fruit with cherries, blueberries, strawberries but have more tropical sunshine flavours of pineapple, banana and mango to try. Immediately I thought right dried fruit + booze = a winner. But which type of booze?
Rum of course. I have bottles upon bottles of Reunion island rum, sitting amongst Mauritian white rum and dark rum, so what better way than to combine these together to inject some homely flavours into this creation. The key to this recipe is soak soak soak the dried fruit, they need to reinvigorate in something and rum enhances their plumpness and juiciness before going into the cake. I soaked mine for 2 nights, some people do overnight others do a week. I was too impatient to wait that long.
I also pulsed a third of the mixture in the food processor (if you want a more moist cake) which I feel achieves the best result.
Ingredients: 850g dried fruit (pineapple, mango and banana) two thirds of this pulsed in the food processor 100g fresh dates, finely chopped up 1 lemon, zest only 1 vanilla pod, seeds only 300g self raising flour 200g dark muscavado sugar 400ml Mauritian dark rum, plus extra to feed the cake later 300g unsalted butter at room temperature 1 tsp cinnamon powder 1/2 tsp mixed spice 50g ground almonds 4 eggs, room temperature
The Glaze: 100g icing sugar 1 vanilla pod, seeds only 1 lime, zest only
Method:
The night before place all the dried fruit( pineapple, mango, banana) into a saucepan with 300ml or Mauritian rum and bring to a simmer. Pour into a bowl, cool and cover to soften, leave overnight at least or longer preferably. Stir every so often.
Pre-heat the oven to 150c/Gas Mark 2. Line the base and sides of 23 cm round tin with a layer of greaseproof paper.
The side lining should be a good 4cm higher than the side of the tin.
Blitz half the dried fruit mixture in a food processor till a wet paste (add 1tbsp rum extra if needed to wet the mixture)
Add back to the rest of the fruit. In a bowl or mixed cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time , add a tablespoon of flour in intervals to help the mixture if it looks like it may curdle. Grate in the lemon zest.
Sift the flour and combine with the cinnamon, vanilla seeds, mixed spice and ground almonds. Add into the butter mixture stir through then add in al the soaked fruit. Fold gently till all mixed well, the mixture should not be stiff buyt easily fall off the back of a spoon, add a few tablespoons of rum if it is too stiff.
Spoon into the prepared tin and bake in the oven on Gas 2 for 2.5 hours, check at 10 minutes intervals after this time, pierce with a skewer when inserted if comes out clean it is ready. Take out of the oven, skewer a few holes over the surface of the cake and drizzle over 4 tbsp of rum Leave to cool in the tin then wrap in greaseproof paper then foil. Store in an airtight container for 2-12 weeks. Feed the cake with alcohol/rum by gently pouring over the top and then re-wrapping.
The Vanilla Glaze: Whick together the icing sugar, 1 vanilla bean seeds only, lime zest till all is mized well and the syrup is shiny. Pour over the warm cake when eating/serving and top with toasted coconut chips or dried pineapple chips Merry Christmas!! xx
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