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Fruity Fruitcake

fruitcake
Make a Fruitcake for dessert

Last year, I dried some fruit from the garden. I used some in muesli and planned to start making energy bars, but all in all, I haven’t used very much of the dried fruit.  So, with the Christmas season ahead, I thought I could use my dried fruit in baking and I came across a few fruitcake recipes that appeared juicy. The recipe below is a modified version of two different fruitcakes.

The fruitcake turned out to be a great success and even my husband, who often finds cakes to be too sweet, loves this cake. It contains a lot of dried fruit (600 g), and you can use any kind of fruit that you like. The recipe is easy to make and here is a description of how you do it.

cake-piece
This fruitcake has a lot of dried fruit
ingredients
Assemble all the ingredients before you start baking
Ingredients for Fruitcake
Cookie

230 g butter

Zest of 1 lemon

Zest of 1 orange

Juice of 1 orange

Juice of 1 lemon

140 g soft brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp  vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp baking powder

230 g wheat flour

1 tsp mixed spice (see below)

600-700 g mixed dried fruit (see below)

60 g walnuts

4 dl dark rum or another spirit you prefer (can be skipped – see directions).

Fruit for fruitcake

The fruit I used (more or less): 100 g raisins, 100 g dried blackcurrants, 150 g dried plums (not prunes, but plums from my own orchard), 100 g gooseberries, 100 g dried apricots, 100 g prunes.

You may change the amounts and use craneberries, figs or other fruits you have or prefer.

soaked-fruit
Soak the fruits overnight in rum or some other liquid
Directions
Day 1

Firstly, assemble the fruit and chop the larger bits into smaller pieces. Next, place in a bowl and pour the rum over the fruit. Let the mixture rest over night, or at least for a few hours for the liquid to soak in.

If you prefer not to use alcohol, you may use apple juice or simply skip this step and cook the fruit slightly longer.

Day 2
  • Grease a 18-20 cm cake tin with butter. You may also line the bottom and edges with baking paper.
  • Chop the nuts coarsely
  • Grate the lemon and orange zest
walnuts
Instead of walnuts, use pecan or almonds
zest
orange and lemon zest
  • Squeeze the lemon and orange for juice and if it doesn’t amount to 1,8 dl, add some water
  • Sift flour, mixed spices, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and mix in the orange and lemon zest
  • Fill a medium pan with the soaked fruit (you may leave out the remaining fluid for later), butter and sugar. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute if you have soaked the fruit and 5 minutes if the fruit is dry. Turn off the heat and leave the mixture to cool for an hour.
eggs
whisk 3 eggs lightly and add vanilla extract
Mix together the ingredients
  • Turn the oven to 160°C 
  • Beat the eggs lightly in a separate bowl and add vanilla extract
  • Pour the eggs over the fruit mixture and stir carefully
  • Finally add all the flour mix and stir gently until everything has blended
mixing
Pour the whisked eggs over the fruitblend
dry-ingredients
Add the dry ingredients
Bake in oven at 160°C for 80-90 min
  • Pour the dough in the cake tin and bake in the oven for 80-90 minutes
  • You may add some paper or aluminum foil over the top after about 50 minutes to prevent the top from browning
baking
Bake in 160°C for 80-90 min
baked-fruitcake
Let the cake cook off in the baking tin

I have served the cake luke warm with vanilla sauce, but the cake will get better after a day or two. You may also spoon the remaining rum over the top of the cake to add the extra flavour.

The cake will last two weeks in room temperature and up to 3 months in the fridge. It stores well in a freezer for up to a year.l

How to make Mixed Spice

Mixed spice is something we can’t buy in a Norwegian or Swedish supermarket, but I found this recipe online so you can make your own. 

  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons ground allspice 
  • 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoons ground coriander 
mixed spices
Measure up the spices and mix them together

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