Friday, October 31, 2008

Power fruit cake

Anybody remember the powering-up war-cry of He-Man (of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe fame) – “Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii’ve got the POWER!”? Well, if this cake had a voice – and the exaggerated V-shaped over-muscular animated cartoon body of He-Man - that’s what it would be shouting – “Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii’ve got the POWERRRRR!”. And it would be right, it’s got dried goji berries, blueberries, cranberries, sour cherries and currants, not to mention almonds, and if that doesn’t make a powerful cake, I don’t know what does.

Recipe for:
Power fruit cake

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Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, cut into pieces
2 cups mixed fruit (I used cranberries, goji berries, blueberries, dried sour cherries and currants)
1/4 cup sliced almonds (or other chopped nuts of choice)
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp clove powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 pint milk
1 cup glace cherries washed of excess syrup and dried on kitchen paper
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup self-raising flour
1 tsp soda bicarb

Method:

1. Place the sugar, butter, fruit, spices and milk in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.

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Boil for a minute or two, then switch off the heat and let the mixture cool. It might look curdled as it cools, but dont worry, all will be well.

2. Preheat the oven to 160C.

3. Add the nuts to the fruit mixture and stir,

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then add the beaten eggs and mix well.

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4. Add the flour and fold through the mix. The batter will be quite thick.

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6. Place the mixture in a greased, deep square 8" cake tin.

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Bake for about 1 hour, checking that the cake isnt burning on the top, after about 30 minutes. If it looks like browning too quickly, cover the top with brown paper.

7. The cake might need more than an hour to cook, or less, depending on the sort of oven you have. After 40 minutes, check the cake with a skewer to see if it's cooked. If not, check every 7 minutes until the tester comes out clean.

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8. Cool in the cake tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

9 comments:

Kitchen Chronicles said...

Cakes with fruits and nuts. Yummy, really powerful

Hetal said...

yummy delicious cake with lots of fruits and nuts....thats gr8!!

Anonymous said...

were all the mixed fruits the dry ones only...or we can add fresh cranberries, grapes etc

Shammi said...

Anon: These are all dried fruits... I wouldnt add fresh ones to this cake, really. There are other recipes that use fresh fruit.

Kalai said...

My goodness! I haven't thought abt He-Man in years!! Thanks for bringing up that memory. Cake looks great and a healthy snack/dessert alternative! :)

Anonymous said...

One of my favorites! Wonder if this can be made eggless. Looks yummy!

Unknown said...

Fantastic cake and I always this cake and I have bookmarked it.Thanks for sharing step by step.

Unknown said...

Looks too good n healthy with all the dry fruits.

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