Fruitcakes recipes are flooding the blogs in the internet of late. I love eating fruitcakes and love baking them. They keep very well too, thus I can slowly enjoy it. I picked this recipe from A Busy Gran's Kitchen because her recipe uses condensed milk (something I have not used before in fruitcakes) to sweeten the cake instead of sugar and the fruits are boiled before soaking with rum.
Ingredients:
200ml water
700g mixed fruits (raisins, currants, orange peel, cherries etc) I used only 650g
100ml brandy/rum/whiskey (optional) I used rum
200g condensed milk
170g butter
230g plain flour, sifted with spices and b. soda
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
90g walnuts, chopped (optional) I omit this as I do not like nuts in my fruitcakes
2 eggs lightly beaten
Method:
1. Prepare the day before baking - Boil fruit and water together. Set aside to cool. Add liqour once cooled and cover. I added cinnamon and nutmeg to boil with the fruits.
2. Melt butter and mix in condensed milk. Add the mixture to the soaked fruits and mix well.
3. Lightly beat the eggs and mix into the fruits.
4. Lastly add flour to the fruits and mix well.
5. Bake in a greased and lined 18-cm round tin in preheated oven at 150deg C for 1 hour or till skewer inserted comes out clean.
6. Let the cake cool in the tin. Remove and place on a piece of foil big enough to wrap. Use a satay stick to poke a few holes in the cake and with a teaspoon pour the liqour into the tiny holes. This way the liqour gets to seep into the cake. Wrap up cake with foil and keep in an air-tight container for a day or two. Remove foil and slice to serve. I keep mine in the fridge and intend to brush more rum on it in order for it to last longer.
