(Recipe adapted from Cook and Enjoy)

Economical fruitcake

• 2¼ c flour

• ¾ c brown sugar

• ¼ c butter or margarine

• 2 eggs

• ½ c golden syrup or molasses

• ½ t bicarbonate of soda

• ¼ t salt

• 1t mixed spice

• 1t ground cinnamon

• ¼ c brandy

• ¼ c raisins

• ¼ c currants

• ½ c candied orange peel

• ¼ c almonds

METHOD

• 1. See recipes for Christmas Fruit Cake for preparation of fruit and cake tin.

• 2. Beat the butter, adding the sugar gradually. Beat till creamy.

• 3. Add eggs one by one, beating well after each addition.

• 4. Add the syrup and mix thoroughly.

• 5. Sift together all the dry ingredients and fold it into the mixture.

• 6. Add the prepared fruit and the brandy and lastly the nuts.

• 7. Turn the mixture into a greased cake tin, lined with 3 layers of greased paper, and tie on a cover made of 2 layers of paper.

• 8. Bake in a slow oven at 150 ° C (300 ° F) for 3 hours.

This cake may be steamed for 2 hours and then baked for I hour. (See recipes on steamed puddings.)

South African Recipe:

Teaspoon measure (t) = 5 ml

Cup Measure (c) = 250 ml

Tablespoon (T) = 12,5 ml

My very late Christmas Fruitcake.

Don't need to read another word - Just go directly to the recipe and start baking

SOS

My Christmas cake was so nice, and we had visitors so we ate it.

Not to worry. This cake can be eaten immediately. The longer one leaves it (and feed it a bit of booze now and again) the nicer it is though, but it can be eaten almost immediately.

I prefer light fruit cakes so it does not matter if I bake late.

Regardless of the method of preparing the fruit in a fruitcake recipe,

I substitute it for my own, which is:

• Soak the fruit in brandy overnight,

• Drain as much of the brandy off just prior to baking

(The brandy is set aside for casual sipping during the baking process or adding to the wet ingredients later.)

• Pat the fruit dry and coat th fruit some of the sifted flour so that the cake mixture easier embraces the fruit.

(One can say I marry the fruit with the flour)

• If this is too messy, I just add a little of the sifted flour to the brandy and fruit mix first.

The reason for this is to get the fruit evenly distributed throughout the cake and not all the fruit doing breaststrokes at the top of the cake, or lazing around at the bottom.

When I choose a recipe I use my own dried fruit and nut mixtures as long as the combined weight is the same as the combined weight of fruit in the recipe.

I do the same with the nuts if I am going to use it.

I do not soak the nuts in brandy, though.

I choose the freshest ingredients and real butter for my very expensive Christmas cake, but many people will have to use what is cheapest this year.

Luckily for me, my husband is still working and Christmas cake time coincides with bonus month time, so I can splash out a bit.

• If the recipes I use do not make allowance for alcohol, I simply reduce the amount of fluid in the recipe.

Even people who do not take alcohol normally may add it to cooking.

The heat process used during cooking is supposed to destroy the active alcohol ingredient in fruitcakes. So they say, but watch out for my cake. I "skelmpies" feed it brandy or sherry so by Christmas time my cake is a swaying alcoholic.

We may no longer drink and drive so at least let the cake enjoy itself.

Something has to consume the booze.

Mind you, that is now another can of worms, come to think about it.

One does not want one of our guests to fail the Breathalyzer test because he/she ate a slice of my Christmas cake.

Perhaps I will bake alcohol free kiddies and drivers cake also and put a big warning sign on my alcoholic cake.

"Do not eat and drive" a doggy bag is recommended.

This particular cake is beboozled."

Happy late baking

Follow the link to the recipe

Light Christmas Fruit-cake (level beginners)

This year I baked the same light fruit cake for Christmas as I did last year.
After looking through many of my cook books, I settled for "old favourite" from "Cook and Enjoy."
The only difference was that I baked it in two loaf tins so that I have one small cake for Christmas and one for my husband's birthday a month later.

I added all the weight of fruit, cherries and peel together and made up my own mixture of glacè- and dried-fruit and cherries.
All except the preserved ginger which I ate before the baking day. I loooooove ginger.

My husband normally buy's the fruit mixture. I just give him the amount and tell him buy whatever he wants in the cake. It is then his job to feed the cake some brandy every now and then, after it has been baked, while it is waiting in the cake tins to mature.

I soak the fruit in brandy the night before and use some of the flour and just sprinkle it over the fruit before adding it to the flour mixture. The reason for coating the fruit is to spread it evenly throughout the cake when it bakes and not all go to the bottom. The flour coating "marries" the fruit with the dough before it is mixed.

Light Christmas fruit cake

• 250 gram butter

• 250 gram castor sugar

• 6 eggs (or 4 extra large)

• 3 cups flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 500 g mixed fruit (chopped sultanas, candied peel, seeded raisins, currants)

• 250 gram candied cherries, cut into halves

• 55 g (2 oz.) chopped nuts

• 1 teaspoon lemon essence

• (45ml - 60ml) brandy

METHOD

• 1. Cream the butter and gradually add sugar. Beat until light.

• 2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

• 3. Add the prepared fruit, cherries and nuts. Mix well.

• 4. Sift together the dry ingredients and fold in.

• 5. Lastly add flavouring and brandy and blend well.

• 6. Turn the batter into a cake tin lined with aluminium foil or a few layers of buttered brown paper.

• 7. Bake in a moderately cool oven at 150 °C (300 °F) for 2-2 1/2 hours.

My variations
Before I start I turn the oven on and prepare my cake tins.
Clean the kitchen and prepare my work surface.

People living in small flats may even use the ironing board with plastic over it for more work space.
Next I find and weigh or measure all the ingredients

I did not have castor sugar so I added normal sugar to the blender and blended it into caster sugar.
Then I added the butter and mixed it until it resembled cream.

Then I transferred it to the mixer and added the eggs one at a time.
I sifted the dry ingredients and coated the fruit with some of the dry ingredients first.

It was less messy to add the other ingredients to the soaking fruit so I first added the wet ingredients and then the dry ingredients.

I mixed it carefully aiming not to break the trapped air caught up by the mixing and the sifting process. ( using a metal spoon rather than a blunt spoon.)