LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS CAKE
Published: 01/12/2011 by ANDREA KLEEHAMMER
» FOOD
LAST MINUTE CHRISTMAS CAKE
YOU WILL NEED:
300g unsalted butter
420g raw sugar
1kg mixed dried fruit
2 tsp bicarbonate soda
½ cp brandy, sherry or rum
11/2 cps cool water
2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg or ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 eggs lightly beaten
2 ½ cps stone-ground wholemeal plain flour
150g pecan halves and 120 g blanched almonds
APRICOT GLAZE
½ cp apricot jam or conserve
1 tablespoon water
NOW ALL YOU NEED TO DO:
Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan large enough to eventually hold all the cake ingredients. Add the sugar and stir to partially dissolve it so its wet and slushy.
Tip in all the dried fruit, bi-carb, brandy and water. Increase the heat to high and keep stirring till sugar has dissolved.
Bring to boil, and then simmer for 4 minutes.
When ready turn off heat and cool in pan.
TIN OPTIONS
Preheat your oven to 150c. Butter a 24cm cake tin and line the base and sides with 2 layers of buttered baking paper. Set aside.
Or you could line several smaller sized tins for Christmas pressies, for example, 1x 6” tin and 4x4” tins if desire.
Add the nutmeg, cinnamon and eggs to the dried fruit mixture and stir them in well. Mix in the flour, and then leave the batter to sit for a few minutes. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and give it a gentle shake to level the top.
Decorate the top with the pecans and the almonds in alternating rings or anything or any other design you like.
IN THE OVEN
Bake the lge cake for 2 ¼ -2 ½ hours or until the cake feels firm to touch and a skewer comes out clean. If after an hour and the top is a good rich brown cover loosely with alfoil to stop it getting darker.
Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack. Remove it from the tin and wrap it tightly in plastic film and foil and store in the fridge where it will keep up to 6 weeks.
For a light sheen, brush the top of the cake with the apricot glaze before serving.
AND NOW FOR THE GLAZE
To make glaze bring the apricot jam and the water to the boil stirring all the time then brush over the cake.
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