Gourmet Fruit Cake

UPDATED AGAIN :- Initially I stated 750ml sherry wine plus 100ml lemon juice & juice of an orange but I found that to be very moist for my fruit cake. I have not had to moisten the alcohol soaked alcohol to mature the cake because it was very moist.So I made the cake again by only reducing the sherry wine to 500ml, the outcome at the moment looks good.Better than before.Still moist but not overly moist like before.

UPDATE- It's more than two months since I made my fruit cake. The taste was pretty authentic but slightly over-moist but it's better to be on the moister side than drier side, yeah?=P

October 2011-I have mid semesters coming up and that means mid semester break is coming after, time has flown by so quickly,I am glad. Anyway I have always been wanting to make the traditional fruit cake and haven't quite found a suitable one until recently I stumbled upon the Country Women Association bake book and found quite reliable recipe. They had a few but this was something interesting. It needed the right amount of time to soak the fruits in alcohol and maturing the cake after baking.

Here's the adapted recipe:

Fruits & Sherry

450g currants

190g sultanas

170g cranberries

230g pitted prunes,chopped

230g pitted dates,chopped

200g glace cherries,sliced

200g mixed peel

300g nuts (I used macadamia nuts,cashew nuts,silvered almonds)

500ml sherry (or dark rum)

100ml lemon juice

juice of an orange

rind of two lemons & an orange

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cake mixture

250g unsalted butter,softened (if using salted butter, omit salt)

340g dark brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp each of ground cinnamon,ground nutmeg,ground all spice

5 large eggs

250g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

A week before baking

• Combine fruits and nuts. Stir in sherry (or dark rum) and let mixture stand for a week.
• Make sure the mixture is keep in a cool dark place and that fruits and nuts have full submerged in sherry.

Baking cake

• Preheat oven to 135 degrees Celsius (It's always good to have a oven thermometer for accurate temperature. Also never set oven higher than 135 degrees.It is always safer to set temperature slightly lower, maybe 130 degrees or lowest be 120 degrees but never higher).
• Butter two 8 cm deep 23 cm x 13 cm baking pans (or any two baking pans that can hold 8 cups in volume each) ,line them with baking paper, making sure the paper extends over the edge of the tins. Butter the baking paper lightly.
• Cream butter and gradually blend in sugar and spices. Beat in 2 eggs. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
• Blend 1 cup of the flour mixture with the creamed mixture and beat in 3 more eggs. Stir the fruit and sherry (or dark rum) mixture and remaining flour, mixing the batter well.
• Pour the batter into prepared pans, pressing it down firmly into the corners, then drop filled pans from a height of 15 cm to eliminate any air bubbles.
• Place the cakes in the oven together and put a shallow pan filled with hot water (you can always place the shallow pan filled with water when you preheat the oven) on the bottom of oven underneath the cakes. (This prevents cakes from burning at the bottom and drying out).
• Bake for 2 1/2 hours ( do not open the oven door until at least 2 hour 15mins for consistency in oven temperature. But if cake is browning too fast, take it out carefully and place foil on top and then place ) or until they are test done.
• Cool the cakes completely in the pans then transfer to wire racks, peel off the paper.

• Wrap cooled caked in cheesecloth that has been soaked in sherry wine, double wrap the cake with cling wrap then aluminium foil, store in tightly covered containers. Let the cakes age as long as possible before serving.( one month minimum), moistening cloths every month with sherry wine or rum to prevent cake from being dry.