Foodie

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Free Range Fruit Cake

This recipe is Alton Brown's of Foodnetwork. Cake was made 2 days before christmas and hope will be matured enough for the Chinese New Year on Jan 29th. Recipe is supposed to be easy, but with me in high altitude, the cake rised and sunk in the middle. Guessed i should have to use less raising agent , increase the flour and decrease the oven temperature to 300 f. I could not wait for it to mature, therefore have cut a few pieces for tasting. It is nice and moist and my neice, Jo Ann from sydney australia who was here for a visit, commented that, usually she does not like fruitcake but this one suited her palate.


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Ingredients:

1 cup golden raisins
1 cup currants
1/2 cup sun dried cranberries
1/2 cup sun dried blueberries
1/2 cup sun dried cherries
1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
Zest of one lemon, chopped coarsely
Zest of one orange, chopped coarsely
1/4 cup candied ginger, chopped
1 cup gold rum
1 cup sugar
5 ounces unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks)
1 cup unfiltered apple juice
4 whole cloves, ground
6 allspice berries, ground
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 to 1/2 cup toasted pecans, broken
Brandy for basting and/or spritzing

Method:

Combine dried fruits, candied ginger and both zests.

Add rum and macerate overnight, or microwave for 5 minutes to re-hydrate fruit.

Place fruit and liquid in a non-reactive pot with the sugar, butter, apple juice and spices.

Bring mixture to a boil stirring often, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Remove from heat and cool for at least 15 minutes. (Batter can be completed up to this point, then covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before completing cake.)

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients and sift into fruit mixture. Quickly bring batter together with a large wooden spoon, then stir in eggs one at a time until completely integrated, then fold in nuts.

Spoon into a 10-inch non-stick loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Check for doneness by inserting toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done. If not, bake another 10 minutes, and check again.

Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack or trivet. Baste or spritz top with brandy and allow to cool completely before turning out from pan.

When cake is completely cooled, seal in a tight sealing, food safe container. Every 2 to 3 days, feel the cake and if dry, spritz with brandy.

The cake's flavor will enhance considerably over the next two weeks.


Serves

9 comments:

jadepearl said...

Yummylicious fruit cake! *drool*

Happy New Year to you and your family!!!

Got your "what I need to bake for CNY" list ready yet? *wink*

FooDcrazEE said...

Just like ur niece, I dont like fruit cake but if she said its good, maybe ishould try the recipe.

Drop me a line at my email for ur coming visit in April.

Happy New Year Lily

Unknown said...

foodcrazee

you would have to start soaking the mixed fruits now and then the cake will be matured enough for the cny. our neighbor dropped by last night while i was splashing with brandy and i offered him a piece. he said that he does not like fruitcake but he will have a tiny piece. after tasting it he demanded a big piece. i think my cake might not last the cny.

will definitely drop you a line when i am in kl

Unknown said...

jadepearl

have not even invited our guests for the cny celebration.

the yee sang is a must and this year, i think i will do the steam boat - no time at all with these 2 grandkids of mine.

i would love to make pineapple tarts one of these weekends. Hope i will find time.

what about you? i am sure an interesting list is already lined up.

happy cny and belated new year

Unknown said...

foodcrazee

a very happy belated new year and kong hee fatt chai to you and family

Anonymous said...

Hi Lily,

I've been looking around on your blog and find it really interesting, though I haven't actually tried any recipe yet! Just wondering, I'm trying to make a steamed fruitcake in the oven because I don't have a steamer big enough. Have you ever tried anything like this? Just wondering if you could advise on what oven temperature would be suitable for steam-baking.

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks!

Unknown said...

anonymous

i have not done any steam baking yet but you could use a very slow oven like 300f and bake the fruit cake for longer

Anonymous said...

aunty lily what's allspice berries?

Unknown said...

anonymous

you can read up on allspice berries from here http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/allspice.html

Substitutions
One teaspoon ground allspice is equivalent to approximate 5 whole berries.

If you need a substitute for allspice combine equal parts of ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and black pepper.

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