An acquaintance sent me an Easter recipe this week.  She writes:

“I made this FoolProof Fruit Cake for Easter. I had to type out the recipe, as the hand written page fell out of my exercise book and I didn’t want to loose such a family favourite, and then I thought I might as well share it. : ) It was given to me by my Aunty Chris about xx years ago. (I saw how long ago that was and thought I might sound old, so I took it out! It was a while ago, but I still use the recipe!)

This recipe makes a fabulous, more-ish fruit cake – quite a big, heavy one.

If I put in a lot of extra dried fruit eg ½ cup apricots and ½ cup prunes, I might add in an extra egg and/or extra flour.  You can’t go too wrong with this recipe (remember ‘fool proof’). Draining a tin of crushed pineapple and adding that (without the apricots and prunes) is also a nice flavour-some touch.

Enjoy!“

I haven’t had a chance to test the recipe yet but wanted to share it with you in time for Easter.  Part of the recipe requires soaking overnight so if you get started today, it will be ready for baking tomorrow.  It makes one large, yummy cake!  Happy Easter!

Fool Proof Fruit Cake

Night before baking

1 kilogram mixed fruit (sultanas, currants, raisins, glace cherries)
fruit juice (grape or apple, etc.) enough to cover mixed fruit

Place the fruit into a bowl, and cover with fruit juice. Soak fruit in juice overnight.

Day of baking

120 grams sugar
1 cup milk
240 grams butter
1 teaspoon coriander or nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon all spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3 whole eggs
2 tablespoons Brandy (optional)
360 grams flour

On the day of baking, drain juice from fruit in a colander. Reserve the juice for another purpose (maybe some smoothies!) or discard.

In a saucepan, heat butter, milk, and sugar together until dissolved, stirring occasionally. Be sure not to scald milk. Set aside. Add spices, salt and almonds to fruit mixture and combine well. Pour butter/milk/sugar mixture over fruit and set aside.

Beat eggs lightly in a small bowl and combine with fruit mixture. If desired, add two tablespoons Brandy and mix to combine.

Add flour to fruit mixture and stir until well combined.

Line a large square baking pan with several layers of baking paper, spray with oil and sprinkle with flour to prepare the pan.

Using a spatula, scrape the fruit cake mixture into the pan and smooth to flatten.

Cover the pan with foil and place the pan into 275F oven and bake for 2 1/2 or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Once the top of the cake is lightly cooked (about 30 minutes before end of bake time), remove the foil so that the cake can finish cooking and brown on top. Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Remove cake from the pan, peel off paper and wrap in foil. Store in an airtight container or in refrigerator for several weeks.

Variations: Add in some chopped dried apricots; and/or dried, seedless prunes; and/or drained, crushed pineapple.

Kitchen Table Talk…

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