Flavour Revival Festive Celebration Fruit Cake

DIFFICULTY
Difficult Difficult
COOK TIME
Over 2 hrs. Over 2 hrs.
Flavour Revival Festive Celebration Fruit Cake
Main INGREDIENTS
  • Fruit
FOR THIS RECIPE WE LOVE TO USE
3-ply Stainless Steel Deep Casserole
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3-ply Stainless Steel Deep Casserole
Ingredients
Method

Ingredients

For the Cake
  • 2kg mixed dried fruit
  • 4 x 425g cans crushed pineapple, drained
  • 200g glacé cherries, halved
  • 500g butter, softened
  • 700g soft brown sugar
  • 3 teaspoons mixed spice
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
  • 600g plain flour
  • 8 eggs, beaten
  • 50g blanched almonds and 100g glacé cherries to decorate
Spiced Snowflake Biscuits (to decorate the cake)
  • 100g butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1 teaspoon mixed spice
  • Pinch of salt
  • 250g plain flour, extra for kneading
  • 1-2 tablespoons milk
  • Snowflake cookie cutters, varying sizes
Cake Decoration
  • Snowflake biscuits, different sizes
  • Icing sugar
  • Rosemary sprigs
  • 1 orange
  • Gold edible glitter

  • Method

  • 1
    Preheat oven to 160ºC / Fan 150°C / Gas Mark 3
  • 2
    Grease the Sauteuse with a small piece of butter and line the base with baking parchment.
  • 3
    In a large glass bowl place the fruit, pineapple, cherries, butter, soft brown sugar and mixed spice. Microwave on high power for 5 minutes.
  • 4
    Mix well and add the remaining ingredients. Mix again.
  • 5
    Place the mixture in the lined Sauteuse and spread evenly inside the pan.
  • 6
    Arrange the blanched almonds and glace cherries on the top.
  • 7
    Bake just below the centre of the pre-heated oven for 3½ to 4 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.
  • 8
    Spiced Snowflake Biscuits
  • 9
    Preheat the oven to 200⁰C / Fan 180⁰C / Gas Mark 6
  • 10
    Cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla, mixed spice and salt until light and fluffy.
  • 11
    Using your fingertips, rub in the flour to make a sandy-like, crumbly texture.
  • 12
    Add a dash of milk (no more than a tablespoon at a time) and bring the mixture together using a wooden spoon to form a soft dough.
  • 13
    Knead the dough just a couple of times before turning out onto a well-floured surface.
  • 14
    Roll out the dough to approximately the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut out cookies of varying sizes and place on a lined or non-stick baking tray using a palette knife - at least 4 of each sized cookie is a good start.
  • 15
    Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until golden - the cookies will firm up as they cool.
  • 16
    Decorating the Cake
  • 17
    Sprinkle a selection of different sized snowflake biscuits with a little icing sugar. Position them in a wreath-like fashion around the edge of the cake, placing the larger ones down first and layering with the smaller sizes. To fix in place, put a little icing sugar loosened with a small amount of water onto the biscuit base. This is a great edible glue.
  • 18
    Entwine approximately 4 sprigs of rosemary in with the biscuits.
  • 19
    Slice the orange thinly and cut each slice into 2 to create semi-circles. Evenly distribute the pieces around the wreath before sprinkling everything with a little edible glitter.
  • 20
    Cook's Notes
  • 21
    If you do not have a microwave place the first 6 ingredients into the Sauteuse (before you prepare it for the cake) and heat gently until the mixture has melted and continue from Step 4.