Skip to main content

Cosy Comfort Food - Fruit Cake

There's nothing better than sitting down with a hot cuppa and a sweet treat.  I love cake, probably a little too much and I love always having something ready to go in my cake tin.  It's always nice to have something ready for that late afternoon slump or for when someone pops in for a chat.

I discovered the inspiration for this recipe last year, it was inspired by a Christmas Tray Bake recipe by the fabulous Mary Berry and I adapted it to my taste and store cupboard.


It's a little to no rise fruit cake which I cut in to bars for serving.  It's rich and golden and foes great with a cup of tea or coffee. You can use marzipan and icing like I do or keep it plain, its adaptable throughout the year and keeps well if you can stand to stop eating it.



Fruit Cake Tray Bake 


I stary with 175g of butter or margarine  whichever is your preference and 175g of light brown sugar. Creaming them together until light and fluffy before I add 4 eggs, 175g of plain flour, 450g dried fruit.  If you want the cake to have that Christmassy feel soak the fruit overnight in your favourite spirit, I use ameretto around 4 teaspoons just to infuse the almond flavour.  If you haven't time to soak your fruit and still want that spirit laced flavour you can add a teaspoon to the mix.

Once the mix is well combined I pour in to a cake tin - rectangular is best if you want to cut in to bars.  I then bake for around 60mins until light golden brown and a cake tester can be removed clean.



I allow the cake to cool fully, then I use a cake brush and give the cake a light layer of jam to help the marzipan to stick.  I roll out the marzipan to the right size and smooth over the top of the cake.  I then repeat with icing smoothing it across the cake before cutting in to bars.

I store the cake in an airtight tin.

Ingredients   

4 Teaspoons of a spirit of your choice 
4 Eggs
175g of Butter or Margarine 
175g of Light Brown Sugar 
450g of dried fruit - you can also add other dried fruits such as cherries and apricots taking the total weight up to approx 950g this will give you a heavier /denser fruit slice but will still work with the batter measurements 

For the Top 
Jam (Strawberry or Apricot) warmed 
500g marzipan (or almond paste) 
500g Ready to roll Icing


Preheat the over to 140fan (160c) 
Grease and line a tin approx 30 x 20cm with greaseproof paper 
Soak your fruit overnight if required. 
Cream the butter and sugar together 
Add eggs, flour, fruit and mix well 
Pour in to the prepared tin and level 
Bake for 60 mins until golden brown - insert a skewer to test 






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

10 Things I Love about "It's Okay to Not be Okay"

It's Okay to not be Okay, started this past weekend on Netflix and TVN, produced by Studio Dragon, Story TV and Goldmedalist, it is a Romantic Drama a a whimsical fairy tale twist, staring Kim Soo Hyun in his first TV drama since returning from military service and Seo Ye Ji of Lawless Lawyer. This is a show I've been looking forward to since it was announced and I have to say the pre show hype did not disappoint. So two episodes in, here are the ten things I love about this show so far; 1.  Burton esq Whimsey The show begins with a Tim Burton esq animation, reminiscent of the Corpse Bride and Nightmare before Christmas, with a twisted tale to match.  The dark fairy tale and graphic characters of the animation are carried through in to the illustrations of Ko Moon-young's (Seo Ye Ji) children's books I love how the animation isn't dark which makes some of its darker themes all the more impactful. It also sets up Ko Moon-young as a character bea...

On this Day

On this day, the 24 March 1944 my Grandfather Joseph Robinson climbed in to the small and cramped tail gunner post of his Lancaster Bomber with his crew. The Wedding of Joseph Robinson to Irene Baum  Joining the RAF when war broke out and worked his way up for Flgt. Sgt.  He had been flying for a year by this point.  Married one day shy of six weeks he lift his wife at home in his native Sunderland and returned to his squadron at Elsham Wood. Joe was ideal as a tail gunner, a strong man, a confident man but he was short enough and small enough to fit in to the plexi-glass turrets of Lancaster Bomber.  The problem with being a Tail-end Charlie, wasn't just the cramped conditions where many couldn't wear the parachutes or even boots if they wanted to fit in, neither was it the loneliness of being so far removed from the rest of the crew, but the real kicker would be if you needed to escape. The tail turrets while the most important defensive position c...

My Top 5 Korean Drama / Thrillers

I'm a huge drama fan be it movies, theatre or TV I love drama as a viewer and as a writer, I love immersing myself in other lives.  George RR Martin said 'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only once."  For me as a writer I get to live a thousand lives, as a reader a thousand more and as a drama lover who knows.  I always get excited when the autumn season of drama is due to start in the UK, there's always been something to look forward to building up to some great dramas in the winter months to curl up and become absorbed in.  But the dramas this past year were lacking for me and I needed something new to fill the void of lives I was missing out on. Netflix is always a great place for me to find something different, it replaced my love of the video store when that became a thing of the past.  Browsing the shelves and peaking at the inserts deciding which film I would spend my evening with.  I even worked in a ...