Christmas Fruit Cake

I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas !

Fruit cakes are often served in celebration of Christmas. This cake is rich, dark moist fruit cake with wonderful combination of nuts, spices and dried fruits soaked in Rum / Brandy.

Ingredients

• Butter 250 gm softened
• Brown Sugar 1 1/4(250 gm) cup
• Eggs 4 nos
• Orange Marmalade 2 tbsp
• Mixed dried Fruit 600gm( 5 1/2 cup)
• Self Raising Flour 1 1/2 cup
• Plain flour 1/2 cup
• Baking powder 1/4 tsp
• Mixed Spice (nutmeg, dry ginger, cinnamon, clove and cardamon) 2 tsp 
• Rum / Brandy 3/4 cup to soak dry fruits 
• Whole Almonds 1/4 cup ( blanched)
• Rum / Brandy 2tsp extra for brushing the cake

Method

Soak mixed fruits in brandy or rum two weeks before or you can soak it overnight.

Position oven shelves; preheat oven to slow. Line base and sides of deep 22cm - round cake pan with baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above sides of pan.

Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with electric mixer until just combined; beat in eggs, one at a time, until just combined between additions. Mixture may curdle at this point but will come together later.

Sift flours, baking powder and spice and mix well.

Add marmalade and fruit mix, mix thoroughly with one hand. 

Drop cake mixture into the pan, hold paper in position spread mixture and level surface of cake mixture with spatula, decorate top with almonds.

Bake cake in 180 C about 1 hour 20 minutes. Remove cake from oven; brush top with extra brandy or rum. Cover pan tightly with foil; cool cake in pan. 

Note: 

If both butter and eggs are at room temperature, this will help avoid the mixture curdling.

Buy fruit already mixed, or mix your own to suit your taste. All fruit should be chopped to the size of a sultana.

Nuts can be added to the fruit mixture, if you like.

Cover cake loosely with foil during baking if it starts to overbrown.