With the festive season right around the corner, now is the perfect time to get baking. People often wonder why we make Christmas cakes so far in advance, the answer is simple, just like a fine man wine, they get better with age. Bake them in October for a deliciously moist and rich fruit cake. This recipe is one of our favourites here at Silver Mushroom, it has made quite a few appearances at our HQ and it’s safe to say that it has not ever lived to see the end of the working day.
Thanks to our divine leader Nigella, we now have the perfect Christmas cake recipe. The lack of flour makes this cake exquisitely damp, the perfect ending to a seasonal supper.
Get prepared for Christmas cooking, baking and creating with our fabulous Winter Edit, you wont be disappointed!
With out further ado, here is Nigella’s Gorgeously Golden Fruit Cake Recipe.
Ingredients:
- 350 grams roughly chopped dried pears
- 250 grams roughly chopped dried apricots
- 250 grams golden sultanas
- 175 grams soft butter
- 200 grams caster sugar
- 125 millilitres white rum
- 200 grams ginger jam (or preserve or marmalade)
- 225 grams ground almonds
- 35 grams sesame seeds (or mixture sunflower & pumpkin)
- seeds from 3 cardamom pods
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
- 3 large eggs
- 75 grams whole blanched almonds
Method:
- Roughly scissor the pears and apricots into small pieces and put them into a saucepan with the sultanas, butter, sugar, rum and ginger jam or preserve, or indeed marmalade.
- Simmer for 10 minutes and then leave to stand for about 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2/300ºF. Line the bottom and sides of a 20cm / 8 inch high-sided tin with a double layer of Bake-O-Glide or regular baking parchment; the lining should extend about 10cm / 4 inches above.
- Stir the ground almonds, sesame seeds (or a mixture), cardamom seeds and coriander into the cooled saucepan. Beat in the eggs and spoon into the prepared cake tin, smoothing the top.
- Starting in the middle, work in concentric circles as you place the blanched almonds on top of the cake batter in decorative rings (rather like a Dundee cake).
- Bake for 1 hour 40 minutes, then leave to cool completely in the tin. Once cool, take out of the tin, wrap with baking parchment then foil, before stashing it away in its cake tin or other airtight container.
