I love cake………..but you probably already knew that. And one of the things I love to do in the lead up to Christmas is bake fruit cakes. I’ve made a lot of fruit cakes in my time and retro daddy has tasted a lot of them. I’ve always found the easiest and most foolproof recipes to make are the boiled fruit cake. They don’t take as long in the oven, you don’t have to soak your fruit beforehand and you still end up with a delicious cake. But I was flicking through a CWA cookbook and found pineapple fruit cake and knew I had to make it this Christmas.
and retro daddy thinks that this is the best fruit cake I’ve made. He normally likes to offer a little constructive criticism when I ask him to taste something – he obviously takes his job very seriously – but I got nothing but praise for this one. But this recipe wasn’t without fault. You see the recipe called for a can of pineapple pieces, I re-read it a couple of times because I’ve used crushed pineapple in my hummingbird cakes but not pineapple pieces.
So I made up the boiled mixture and then as I looked at it I thought those big pineapple pieces are just going to get a bit wet and soggy in the cake. So I did a quick google search and realised that I should have been using crushed pineapple. So I picked out each and every piece of pineapple, chucked them in the Thermomix and processed them on turbo a couple of times and voila, I had crushed pineapple and put them back in the mixture and you’d never know.
So do you love fruit cake at Christmas and do you make your own? Maybe your fruit is already soaking in brandy or you’ve got a cake stashed away. Let me know what you’re doing…….
- 500g mixed dried fruit
- 50g glace cherries (optional)
- 450g can crushed pineapple
- 125g unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 cup sugar (I used caster)
- 1 tsp bicarb soda
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup self raising flour
- Place dried fruit, pineapple (don't drain it), butter, sugar and bicarb in a saucepan and bring to the boil on a medium heat.
- Remove from the stove and leave to cool. I like to transfer to a big bowl and leave it to cool
- Add in eggs and mix well. Sift in the flour and mix it in well. Make sure there is no flour left at the bottom of the bowl. Nothing worse than discovering this once you've put most of the mixture into a lined tin.
- Pour into a lined square or round tin and place in a preheated oven 180C/350F and bake for at least 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Now the cooking time will depend on your oven and the size of tin you use. Just check it with a knife or skewer at 45 minutes and if it comes out clean (don't stick it straight into a piece of fruit!) then you're done. If not put it back for another 10 minutes and test again.
- You can pour some brandy or alcohol over the top of your cake if you like but I soaked my fruit in brandy for 2 days before the cake was made.
- Leave to cool then slice and enjoy.