Luxury dark fruitcake
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Serves: Makes 1 large cake
A decadent show-stopper.
Ingredients
750g dried fruit cake mix
200g red glace cherries, halved
125g pitted dates, coarsely chopped
100g glace pineapple, coarsely chopped
250ml brandy
250ml butter or margarine, softened
250ml (200 g) soft brown sugar
5ml vanilla essence
5ml caramel essence
30ml smooth apricot jam
500ml (280 g) Snowflake cake flour
1ml salt
2ml ground nutmeg
5ml ground cinnamon
5ml ground mixed spice
5ml ground ginger
5 extra-large eggs
Icing
1 quantity (430 g) marzipan
1 quantity (400 g) sugar paste icing
Method
- Mix the fruit cake mix, cherries, dates and pineapple with half the brandy and leave to soak overnight.
- Line a 20 cm square cake pan with two layers greaseproof paper and two layers brown paper. Grease well and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until light and creamy. Add essences and jam.
- Sift flour, salt and spices together. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Add fruit and mix well until all the fruit is covered. Spoon mixture into prepared pan.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 150 °C for 1 hour. Reduce oven temperature to 140 °C and continue baking for 1 ¼ hours. Sprinkle remaining brandy over cake and leave to cool completely before removing from pan.
- Icing: Cover cake with marzipan and sugar paste icing.
