Chocolate Fruit Cake

Mr M is not a fruit cake lover. At all. So I thought I would try Nigella's "Incredibly Easy Chocolate Fruit Cake" from her Nigella Christmas book to see if I could tempt him over to the dark side. Needless to say it was a great big fail. Not the cake, the cake was a raging success I though, but no Mr M still didn't like fruit cake so I ended up eating most of the cake myself.

As you can see, my cake didn't look anywhere near as pretty as Nigella's cake, obviously. But I did use the same disco hologram edible glitter that she uses. Edible glitter has changed my baking world. What is not sprinkled with edible glitter just isn't worth eating. (It's available everywhere these days but I have linked to where I originally bought mine from).

This cake was relatively easy, although quite an effort at times especially when lining the darn tin, but the smell, the smell was delicious and it tasted even better. There are an awful lot of ingredients although most of them are store cupboard basics. The prunes were a strange, but welcome addition. You might think you don't like prunes but they work very very well in this cake. I hate Tia Maria, I hate all things related to coffee but I was almost converted after opening the bottle. Wow, what an aroma.

Incredibly Easy Chocolate Fruit Cake

Ingredients

350g prunes, scissored or chopped
250g raisins
175g currants
175g softened butter
175g dark muscovado sugar
225g honey
125ml Tia Maria
Juice and finely grated zest of 2 oranges
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 eggs, beaten
150g plain flour
75g ground almonds
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

Preheat the oven to 150c/gas mark 2 and prepare a 20cm x 9cm deep, round, loose bottomed cake tin by lining the bottom and sides with a double layer of baking parchment.

Put the fruits, butter, sugar, honey, Tia Maria, orange juice and zests, spice and cocoa powder into a large, wide saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring as the butter melts. Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

When the 30 minutes are up - it will have cooled a little, but you can leave it for longer if you want - add the beaten eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to combine.

Pour the fruit cake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place in the oven and bake for one and three quarters to two hours, by which time the top of the cake should be firm but will have a shiny, sticky look. If you insert a skewer the cake will still be a little gooey in the middle.

Put the cake, still in its tin, on a wire cooling rack - it will hold its heat and take a while to cool. Once cool, take it out of the tin and if you don't want to eat it immediately, wrap it in baking parchment then in foil and store in a cake or other airtight tin.

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/300F/gas mark 2 and prepare a 20cm x 9cm deep, round, loose-bottomed cake tin by lining the bottom and sides with a double layer of baking parchment, as for the Gorgeously golden fruit cake (though I find that if you use one layer of that tough, reusable silicone baking parchment, my beloved Bake-O-Glide – buy online via bake-o-glide.co.uk – it does the job well enough, and as the cake is so dark, you don’t see if it catches a little).

Put the fruits, butter, sugar, honey, Tia Maria, orange juice and zests, spice and cocoa powder into a large, wide saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring as the butter melts. Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

When the 30 minutes are up – it will have cooled a little, but you can leave it for longer if you want – add the beaten eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to combine.

Pour the fruit cake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place in the oven and bake for one and three quarters to 2 hours, by which time the top of the cake should be firm but will have a shiny, sticky look. If you insert a cake tester or skewer into it, the cake will still be a little gooey in the middle.

Put the cake, still in its tin, on a wire cooling rack – it will hold its heat and take a while to cool; once cool, take it out of the tin and, if you don’t want to eat it immediately (like any fruit cake it has a long life), wrap it in baking parchment or greaseproof paper then in foil and store in a cake or other airtight tin.

To decorate, though this is optional, place the chocolate-covered coffee beans in the centre of the cake and arrange the gold stars around the perimeter of the top. Then sprinkle some gold mini-balls over the whole cake, and the edible glitter over the top, not minding that you will be a-glitter yourself for a while.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1089299/WEB-EXCLUSIVE-Incredibly-easy-chocolate-fruit-cake.html#ixzz0bSXUTE8h

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/300F/gas mark 2 and prepare a 20cm x 9cm deep, round, loose-bottomed cake tin by lining the bottom and sides with a double layer of baking parchment, as for the Gorgeously golden fruit cake (though I find that if you use one layer of that tough, reusable silicone baking parchment, my beloved Bake-O-Glide – buy online via bake-o-glide.co.uk – it does the job well enough, and as the cake is so dark, you don’t see if it catches a little).

Put the fruits, butter, sugar, honey, Tia Maria, orange juice and zests, spice and cocoa powder into a large, wide saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring as the butter melts. Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

When the 30 minutes are up – it will have cooled a little, but you can leave it for longer if you want – add the beaten eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to combine.

Pour the fruit cake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place in the oven and bake for one and three quarters to 2 hours, by which time the top of the cake should be firm but will have a shiny, sticky look. If you insert a cake tester or skewer into it, the cake will still be a little gooey in the middle.

Put the cake, still in its tin, on a wire cooling rack – it will hold its heat and take a while to cool; once cool, take it out of the tin and, if you don’t want to eat it immediately (like any fruit cake it has a long life), wrap it in baking parchment or greaseproof paper then in foil and store in a cake or other airtight tin.

To decorate, though this is optional, place the chocolate-covered coffee beans in the centre of the cake and arrange the gold stars around the perimeter of the top. Then sprinkle some gold mini-balls over the whole cake, and the edible glitter over the top, not minding that you will be a-glitter yourself for a while.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1089299/WEB-EXCLUSIVE-Incredibly-easy-chocolate-fruit-cake.html#ixzz0bSXUTE8h

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/300F/gas mark 2 and prepare a 20cm x 9cm deep, round, loose-bottomed cake tin by lining the bottom and sides with a double layer of baking parchment, as for the Gorgeously golden fruit cake (though I find that if you use one layer of that tough, reusable silicone baking parchment, my beloved Bake-O-Glide – buy online via bake-o-glide.co.uk – it does the job well enough, and as the cake is so dark, you don’t see if it catches a little).

Put the fruits, butter, sugar, honey, Tia Maria, orange juice and zests, spice and cocoa powder into a large, wide saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring as the butter melts. Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

When the 30 minutes are up – it will have cooled a little, but you can leave it for longer if you want – add the beaten eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to combine.

Pour the fruit cake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place in the oven and bake for one and three quarters to 2 hours, by which time the top of the cake should be firm but will have a shiny, sticky look. If you insert a cake tester or skewer into it, the cake will still be a little gooey in the middle.

Put the cake, still in its tin, on a wire cooling rack – it will hold its heat and take a while to cool; once cool, take it out of the tin and, if you don’t want to eat it immediately (like any fruit cake it has a long life), wrap it in baking parchment or greaseproof paper then in foil and store in a cake or other airtight tin.

To decorate, though this is optional, place the chocolate-covered coffee beans in the centre of the cake and arrange the gold stars around the perimeter of the top. Then sprinkle some gold mini-balls over the whole cake, and the edible glitter over the top, not minding that you will be a-glitter yourself for a while.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1089299/WEB-EXCLUSIVE-Incredibly-easy-chocolate-fruit-cake.html#ixzz0bSXUTE8h

Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/300F/gas mark 2 and prepare a 20cm x 9cm deep, round, loose-bottomed cake tin by lining the bottom and sides with a double layer of baking parchment, as for the Gorgeously golden fruit cake (though I find that if you use one layer of that tough, reusable silicone baking parchment, my beloved Bake-O-Glide – buy online via bake-o-glide.co.uk – it does the job well enough, and as the cake is so dark, you don’t see if it catches a little).

Put the fruits, butter, sugar, honey, Tia Maria, orange juice and zests, spice and cocoa powder into a large, wide saucepan and gently bring to the boil, stirring as the butter melts. Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, then take off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

When the 30 minutes are up – it will have cooled a little, but you can leave it for longer if you want – add the beaten eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to combine.

Pour the fruit cake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place in the oven and bake for one and three quarters to 2 hours, by which time the top of the cake should be firm but will have a shiny, sticky look. If you insert a cake tester or skewer into it, the cake will still be a little gooey in the middle.

Put the cake, still in its tin, on a wire cooling rack – it will hold its heat and take a while to cool; once cool, take it out of the tin and, if you don’t want to eat it immediately (like any fruit cake it has a long life), wrap it in baking parchment or greaseproof paper then in foil and store in a cake or other airtight tin.

To decorate, though this is optional, place the chocolate-covered coffee beans in the centre of the cake and arrange the gold stars around the perimeter of the top. Then sprinkle some gold mini-balls over the whole cake, and the edible glitter over the top, not minding that you will be a-glitter yourself for a while.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1089299/WEB-EXCLUSIVE-Incredibly-easy-chocolate-fruit-cake.html#ixzz0bSXUTE8h

You don't need to decorate the cake but as I said, I used edible glitter like Nigella. Other suggestions she makes are chocolate covered coffee beans, edible gold stars, gold mini balls etc but I would say anything goes!

Really good fruit cake which doesn't need to be made in advance (but it can be, you can freeze it wrapped in a double layer of greaseproof paper and then a layer of foil for up to 3 months). If you are looking for a something a little different in your Christmas cake next year, I'd recommend giving this one a whirl.

love & kisses
Mrs M x