Fruit Cake with Vit-C goodness

SO!!!

I finally baked my fruit cakeS as giveaways this Christmas. And I'm humbled yet secretly proud of myself *grin* as most if not all, were full of raves. Not only because it tastes good, but most were 'impressed' how I manage my time to bake and run the household of not one, but THREE boys.

This Fruit Cake is surely a good keep. This time, I learnt, you have to use MORE fruit mix! The ratio of fruit mix to flour should be 2:1. So, here I used 225gm of flour and 500gm of fruit mix. Yeah! The idea was for the batter to just hold together the fruits in the cake. And the other thing is you really must age the fruit cake. I baked them 3-4 days before Christmas, and that suited me just fine. With all the last minute rush and endless parties and gatherings, I truly appreciate baking beforehand.

Instead of rum and liquor (since this is for KIDS :), I used orange juice instead. Technically then, this cake is full of Vitamin C goodness! I was apprehensive if it will turned out soury... but lo', not only was it not sour at all, the orangy smell permeated my kitchen and my senses! It was so refreshing truly! The longer the cake is aged, I realised, the sweeter it became. There was one cake where I cut and eat them up the moment it was baked and that was sour! But surely not the aged ones.

I baked close to 20 loaves in total and I gave them all away. Leaving only one for my family and it was gone in a single seating. For a family who doesn't really fancy cakes, I guess that says a lot about my fruit cake. *smug*

You'll need these:

* 200ml Orange Juice ( you can juice it fresh or like me, go get Sunkist orange juice!)
* 2 heap tablespoon of orange zest (I needed about 2 oranges to get this amount)
* 250gm butter
* 150gm sugar (I used only 120gm)
* 225gm plain flour
* 4 eggs
* 2 packs of Silver Bird Fruit Mix (500gm total)

Here's what I did:

1. Macerate the Fruit Mix with orange juice and orange zest overnight in the fridge.

2. In a electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Add in egg - one at a time. Beating each time after adding till well incorporated before adding the next egg.

4. Mix in flour until combined.

5. Fold in fruit mix and the remaining juice till well combined.

6. Pour batter into loaf tin (I managed to get about 3 decent size HomeProud loaf tins; used disposable tin as I was giving them away).

7. Bake in oven at 170degC for an hour.

8. Let cake cool and place into fridge for at least 3 days to age them.


Recipe adapted from Wendy (my guru really)