It’s the season for fruit, nuts and all things tasty.
With Christmas Day weeks away, Annie Bell creates delicious fruit cake recipes.
While your grandmother’s Christmas cake is a family tradition, how about starting new traditions with an alternative to the typical fruit cake?
They also don’t have to be made weeks in advance to be enjoyed in time for Christmas lunch.
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Ingredients:
- 75g unsalted butter diced
- 75g golden caster sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- 2 tbsp milk
- 120g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp ground nutmeg
- 40g ground almonds
- 175g mixed dried fruit dark rum for brushing
- caramel
- 25g lightly salted butter diced
- 75g caramel or dulce de leche
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Instructions:
1.
Have ready six individual mini loaf moulds measuring about 10cm x 5.5cm or similar.
2.
Preheat the oven to 170ºC.
3.
Cream together the butter and sugar in a food processor, then add the eggs and the milk.
4.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and nutmeg, and add to the mixture, followed by the ground almonds.
5.
Whiz until smooth and combined.
6.
Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and fold in the dried fruit.
7.
Fill the loaf moulds half full, mounding the mixture along the centre.
8.
Bake for 30 minutes or until risen and firm.
9.
Liberally brush the top of the cakes with rum and leave to cool.
10.
Pop the loaves out of their cases and stand them on a sheet of cling wrap in a cool corner of the kitchen.
11.
Gently melt the butter with the caramel in a small non-stick pan and whisk until smooth and combined.
12.
Drizzle or spread 2 teaspoons over the top of each cake, leaving the caramel to trickle down as wished.
13.
Leave the loaves to set for a couple of hours.
14.
The loaves will be crumbly on the day they are made and slightly firmer thereafter.
They will keep well for several days stored in an airtight container.