Christmas cake with 1½kg of fruit, now cheaper in packets

Press, 21 November 1979, Page 13

Christmas cake with 1½kg of fruit, now cheaper in packets

This is the cake I have nade every second Chrtstnas for the last 18 years, n alternate years I make my lighter Pineapple Christmas Cake, and in between Christmases I make a three-egg rich cake. This cake contains kilograms of fruit. I used to mix i..y own. Now I find it cheaper to use some packets of mixed fruit and some of sultanas and currants. These days hardly any of the fruit needs washing

before use — quite a saving of time. Use whatever dried fruits you like, but

check the individual packet weights, and add up correctly. It isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Remember that l|kg is the same as 1500 grams. Ingredients: 11 kg mixed dried fruit 3 cups (400 g flour 225 g butter 1 cup sugar 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground cloves 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg I orange, rind and juice 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon almond essence 6 eggs

i teaspoon baking soda Method: Wash and dry any dried fruit which has not been cleaned before packing. Measure or weigh the flour into a bowl, then mix about half of it with the fruit. Cream the butter and sugar until light coloured. Add the spices, grated orange rind and essences. Add a tablespoon of the measured flour, then an egg. Add a little, more flour,• then an egg until all eggs, have been beaten in. Then stir in the remaining flour, add the orange juice (about { cup) and the baking soda dissolved in a tablespoon of water. Combine the creamed mixture and the floured dried fruit. Stir thoroughly to mix evenly. Spread mixture into a 23cm (9in) tin lined with one or two layers of greaseproof paper, with paper coming higher than sides of tin. Level the surface. Bake at 150 deg C (300 deg F) for 1| hours, then at 140 deg C (275. deg F) for H hours longer or

until a skewer in the middle of the cake comes out clean. • If desired, pour two to

four tablespoons of brandy, whisky or rum Over the cake as soon as it is taken from oven.