Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Light Fruit Cake


Ingredients:

150 gm. currants
150 gm. sultanas
130 gm. Raisins
100 gm. glaced cherries
50 gm. mixed peel
3 Tbsp. rum
230 gm. Butter
220 gm. sugar
finely grated rind of 1 orange
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
4 eggs
50 gm. chopped almonds
50 gm. ground almonds
230 gm. plain flour

50 gm. blanched almonds

Method:

(1) Soak currants, sultanas, raisins, cherries and mixed peel with rum, brandy or sherry overnight.
(2) Prepare an 8" round cake tin and lined the side and base with double layer of greaseproof paper.
(3) Cream butter and sugar till creamy. Add in orange zest and lemon zest and continue to beat till light and fluffy.
(4) Add in eggs one at a time till thoroughly mixed before adding in the next egg.
(5) Mix 2 Tbsp. of flour into the soaked fruits.
(6) Fold in chopped almonds, ground almonds and soaked fruits. Fold in sifted flour to make a soft dropping consistency.
(7) Pour batter into prepared cake tin. Arrange whole almonds on top of batter and bake at 160C.
(8) Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. or until centre is firm to the touch. Let the cake cool in the tin for 20 mins. then remove it onto a wire rack and leave it to cool completely.
(9) Leave the greaseproof paper intact and remove it only when you want to serve so as to keep the cake moist while stored.
(10) Drizzle some rum onto cake once a while to keep cake moist.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty,

I would love to try your fruit cake, however, is it possible to change the rum with another thing....as a muslim, we do not use rum.....so what is the other alternative for me to soak the fruits? Thank you aunty....

By the way, aunty...can you please write down the recipes for all your entries??? Sorry aunty but your entries are so tempting....cannot resist looking at it.....i can see that you tried almost all the recipes in the book as i have the book too....but never tried it as i am too afraid to do so.....the hands are not meant to make things perfect i guess...especially for the puddings....once tried, but i failed.....

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi Nina,

If you cannot consume rum...soak your fruits in orange juice.

Yeah..my recipes are all from the books. Since you have the books, you should try them yourself. I did that too. I can't post all the recipes though. So it's good to buy the books since you can see that the recipe works.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Dear Yochana,
Did you publish a cookbook? If you do, I really love to get one. May I know the title of the book and where I can buy it? I live in U.S., I'll ask my brother in Singapore to buy it for me.

Thanks
Rookie

Aunty Yochana said...

Dear Rookie,

I didn't publish any cookbook but anyway, that's my dream. Are you a Singapore living in US? You don't come back to SG anymore?

Try my recipes in this blog first and see whether you like or not.
Have fun baking.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi Yochana,
I tried and your recipe is great. Everybody in the family love it. How long can I keep it in the fridge with constant sweeping of rum?
Thanks.
Yvonne

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi Yvonne,

Fruit cake can be kept for at least 3 months if they are properly wrapped and brushed with rum every now and then. I ever tried keeping it for more than 6 months and the cake taste very good with the amount of rum brushing.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Yochana.
I will start baking in September as I intend to give as a gift to my friends on Xmas.
You really have a wonderful site here. And the things you could come up with are out of this world. I salute you. :)

Aunty Yochana said...

Thanks Yvonne,

rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty Yochana, do i need to store the baked fruit cake in the fridge till serving day (intend to bake on 17 dec to be served on 25 dec)? In one of the comment, you mentioned properly wrap, does it mean wrap in aluminium foil with occasional brush of rum on top of cake?

Thanks and wishing you Merry Christmas!

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi Rita,

Yes, you're correct. I used to make my fruit cakes 3 months in advance, wrap them up properly and keep in the fridge. Every few days I will unwrap and brush or sprinkle with some rum or brandy and by the 3rd month...wa la....delicous!!

rgds

Anonymous said...

hi aunty yochana,

I,m interested to purchase the coookbook you have cos I like to collect cookbook.

Where can I get them?

Thanks a lot
esther ong

Anonymous said...

Thanks Aunty Yochana for speedy reply, now I'm equipped to bake this cake liao.

green said...

hi aunty yo,

may i know what brand of rum or brandy you are using to brush your fruitcake with? is it possible to let me know? or pls can you suggest what brand should i use? pls pls...

thanks so much...

best regards.

Aunty Yochana said...

hi green,

Rum use Myer's Rum. For brandy, any brandy will do.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty Yochana

My 1kg of fruit is at present, soaked in Bacardi. Is it ok to use this type of rum? Thanks!

Btw, u are my idol and inspiration!

love,
Cindy

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi cindy,

Normally I will use Captain Morgan's Rum but I think Bicardi Rum should do as well although I've not tried it.

Thanks for being my great fan.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty,
Since I'm gonna used orange juice instead of rum. The amount of orange juice is of the same amount i.e. 3 tbsp.

And as mention the cake can be kept up to 3 months if we constantly brush it with rum. Will it goes the same if we use orange juice?

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi anonymous,

For orange juice, you can put in a little more if your find your mix fruits are not properly bloomed.

If you want to keep it for 3 months, you wrap it properly and keep it in the freezer and thaw it before consuming. It can keep even for 6 months.

rgds

Yan said...

Hi Aunty Lucy :

i followed your receipe steps and baked a decent light fruit cake yesterday afternoon. Even my colleagues who tried it liked it too.

Thank you for the receipe.

Cheers
yan

Anonymous said...

Dear Yochana,
The cake turned out to be dry. Is it because something was not done correctly?
Is it ok to substitute the sugar with brown sugar?
Thank you.

Cindy

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi cindy

many has done this and they told me that they love this cake.

You add in more rum and maybe your eggs are too small.

Oven temp must not be too high.
You can cut down your baking time.
You have to judge your own oven.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Dear Yochana,
I added rum only to the fruits. Is this correct? Should I add more rum when beating the eggs?

I am using a normal oven with heating elements on the top and bottom.

Thank you for your valuable advice.

Cindy

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi cindy,

it's a sign of overbaking with high heat. Lower down your temp. Small oven with top and bottom heat is not the problem.

rgds

Esther said...

Hi Aunty,

May i know is the plain flour = cake flour? Or plain flour is normal flour?

Thanks.

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi Esther

Plain flour is all-purpose flour. CAke flour is almost the same as plain flour and is used for baking cakes.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty

I have been told to wash and dry the dried fruits before soaking them in rum (so that the cake will not be too sweet) – is this necessary ?

And if i were to use a 5" round cake tin, do I half the baking time ?

Thx for your help

Angela

ratu said...

that was good recipe.. let's try it at home...

JT said...

Aunty Yochana, can I check, do I need to refrigerate the soaking fruits or just leave it in room temperature? Have all my dried fruits ready, just cant wait to try out. Thanks for the recipe.

JT said...

Sorry forgot to ask you, can I reduce the sugar? Thanks.