If like me you’ve been swamped with year end work activities right until the 24th of December, and haven’t had the time to bake, this is the recipe for you! No pre-soaking of fruit required (phew!), and you can turn out two fruity (and might I add boozy) cake loaves in about 90 minutes.
This rich fruit-cake recipe use a mix of raisins, currants, dried figs and dried apricots. Its also got the zest and juice of orange and lemon for maximum fruity goodness! It does contain rum, but most of the alcohol cooks off while you simmer the fruit in it, and later on in the oven, so all you are left with is that Christmasy flavor 🙂
Since you’re in a hurry, here’s the recipe🖖
Recipe: Last Minute Christmas Fruit-Cake
Equipment
- An Oven
- A kitchen zester or a very fine grater
Ingredients
- 200 gms Butter
- 200 gms Soft Brow Sugar
- 500 gms Dry Fruit [I use a mix of raisins, currants, dried figs and dried apricots.]
- 1 Lime/ Lemon
- 1 Orange
- 150 ml Rum / Brandy
- 175 gms All Purpose-Flour
- 100 gms Ground Almonds
- ¼ tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Ground Cloves and Nutmeg
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- 4 Eggs
- 100 gms Chopped Walnuts
Instructions
- Add the butter, sugar, dried fruit, zezt & juice of a lime and an orange, as well as the rum to a large saucepan. Simmer over gentle heat for about 10 -12 mins and then allow to cool completely.
- While the fruit-mix cools, grease and line two 8" x 4" baking tins.
- Add the cooled fruit concoction to a large mixing bowl; sift in the flour, ground almonds, ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and backing powder. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until well combined. Its going to be a fairly wet mix.
- Add 4 well beaten eggs to the flour mixture and fold them in till well incorporated. Make sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as you go along so that batter is uniformly mixed!
- Gently fold in the chopped walnuts.
- Pre-heat the oven to 140°C. Pour the batter into the greased and lined baking tins, making sure to fill them up only to 90% of their full capacity.
- Bake the cakes at 140°C for 40 mins and then poke with a skewer to check if done. If a skewer poked right into the middle comes out clean, you know your cakes are done! If not bake for an added 5 mins at a time.
- Allow the cakes to cool in their tins for about 20 mins. While they are still warm, run a knife around the edges of the tin; this will help the cakes release easily later on.
- Flip the cooled cakes out onto a chopping board; peel way the wrapper/ parchment paper, slice and serve!
Recipe Notes:
- Make sure to chop the lager dried fruits like figs and apricots into small pieces
- Figs and currants have seeds that will add a slight crunch to the cake; skip these if that slight crunch is not your thing. (Though I highly recommend them for the added flavor!)
- For the alcohol, I’ve always used good-old, Old Monk! But you can substitute your favorite rum or brandy instead.
- If you’d like to skip the booze, substitute 90 ml of orange juice. We use a little less fruit juice in place of alcohol because it doesn’t cook of as quickly as the rum or brandy would.
Give this a shot if you’re up for some last minute Christmas baking and as a special present, here a little video of the recipe to help you along 🙂
Merry Christmas!🎄🎅
