Is it cheating if I give you another fruitcake recipe? Technically, this is a chocolate fruitcake so it is different! I had this extra marinated fruit from when I initially planned on making my fusion style fruitcake for you but ended up making the Fruitcake Cookies – Treat #5, instead. Which used up a fraction of the quantity of marinated fruit so what was I going to do? So this is 2021 Christmas Treat #11 – Chocolate Fruitcake.
It is adapted from a Nigella Lawson – my kind of Chef as she cooks on the fly with what she has. Rules don’t hold her back and I like that. You can tell she enjoys cooking as much as I do (also makes a ton more money at it, but that’s okay, I’m not bitter!) There are a couple of things I wanted to go through with you with regards to this recipe, starting with wrapping the tin really well. Wrap it twice, use a cooking spray between layers. I remember doing this with my mum as her assistant – I was never crazy about the prep activity and only later on did I understand the value of it. I remember lining the tin twice, using – at that time, a bit of butter and wax paper. I did learn how to cut circles because of it though, so as always – thanks mum! If the side of the tin is 3” high cut a 10” piece and fold it in half, this will be used as the liner for the sides and will go over the top by a few inches. It’s okay!
Now that you have the tins lined, let’s get to the fruit! Notice no neon cherries, mixed peel or citron. My cake, my rules! I did use my favorite blend of fruit – prunes, apricots, currants and raisins. But use any fruit you like to eat raw. Also, for the orange, I used whole oranges that I blitzed in the food processor – skin and all, to make a chunky paste to add to my fruit – use seedless oranges or remove any if there are seeds before pulsing. Don’t completely mush it up, you want some orange skin pieces showing – very delicious. You can pulse the fruit in a processor and soak it in rum for a few days as I did (mine were soaked for a lot longer than that and with three times the quantity of alcohol – well it was two weeks!).
Finally, no mixer required! Oh my goodness, what a game changer if you don’t have a mixer. The idea of boiling the fruit in alcohol and combining it with the sugars and spices – genius! Then adding everything together in the cooled mixture and stirring to mix well before panning and baking. Oh my! Just makes fruitcake making so much more palatable. Once baked and cooled, wrap well in parchment and cheesecloth before placing in an airtight container. Paint it every few days with ¼ cup or more – well don’t measure it of course – eyeball it! Cut into finger like pieces and serve on your sweet table. This is not the same taste as the cookies – it’s got chocolate in it and oh so much alcohol.
Get the booster before Christmas – puhleeze! Wear a mask, wash your hands, celebrate according to the guidelines please and in a responsible fashion, and be safe! As always – enjoy!
Ingredients
725g of your favorite dried fruit ie (100g) currants, (75g) golden raisins, (300g) prunes, (250g) apricots
3 medium (or 2 large) thin skinned oranges, pulsed in a processor, skin and all
175g soft unsalted butter
175g turbinado sugar
175ml honey
125ml Kahlua, Tia Maria or some other coffee liqueur
1 tbsp instant espresso powder
3 tsps total, spice mix – I used 2 tsps ground cinnamon, ½ tsp ground ginger, ½ tsp ground cardamom
4 tbsp cocoa
1 cup sliced almonds
3 large eggs, beaten
150g all-purpose flour
75g ground almonds
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 320f
2. Line the bottom and sides of a 9” spring form pan – really important because you don’t want the fruit to burn as it touches the sides of the metal tin – set aside
3. To a heavy bottom pot over medium heat, add the butter, fruit, sugar, honey, liqueur, spices, espresso and processed/chopped oranges
4. Bring the mixture to a simmer and let cook for about 10 minutes – this will soften up the dried fruit and help it absorb the liquid in the pot much quicker than soaking a month in advance
5. Add the sliced almonds and stir well
6. After 10 minutes, remove from the heat and begin scaling your other ingredients – about 20 – 30 minutes to cool down, stir every few minutes to help it cool faster
7. Measure out and combine the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and baking soda
8. In a separate small bowl, whisk the three eggs
9. When the fruit mixture is warm to the touch, stir in a couple of tablespoons of the fruit mixture to the egg bowl to ensure it won’t scramble when you add all the whisked eggs to the fruit
10. Add the flour mixture in one go, add the whisked egg mixture and stir well using a large wooden spoon – it needs to be a thick handle so it won’t break as you stir the fruit
11. Pour the fruit cake mixture into the prepared pan and place it in the oven along with a heat proof bowl of water and bake for 60 – 70 minutes
12. Check at 60 minutes – if ready, the cake should have a shiny look and a toothpick inserted into the center will have a few moist crumbs – that’s okay as the cake will continue to bake with residual heat out of the oven
13. Put the cake on a cooling rack and let it cool completely before removing from the tin
14. Wrap well in parchment paper and cheesecloth before placing in an airtight tin or plastic container – paint the cake often with alcohol and keep well covered for a couple of weeks in the fridge or wrapped airtight a couple of times with plastic wrap, tinfoil and a freezer bag
15. Fruitcake freezes well if you have extra
Well Why Not! (Tips and Suggestions)
– Change up the fruit mixture, just don’t change the total weight of fruit
– Add a combination of nuts to the mix
– Cover the top with marzipan – but only after you think you’ve added enough alcohol to the mix (I can’t believe I just said that). Make your own or – store bought in the bakery section (European deli’s seem to be the best place to get the ready made stuff)
– Paint often with your favorite alcohol – Grand Marnier is one of mine, brandy, rum, whisky – all work – well with chocolate and fruit
– For best slicing results, keep refrigerated. Cut a 1″ slice across the cake, then cut that slice into 1 or 2″ pieces.
– It’s rich so that really is a good size, but hey, your fruitcake your slice
