Aunty Elsie’s Boiled Fruit Cake

Now this one is Aunty Elsie’s Boiled Fruit Cake recipe.  Mum thinks that this recipe is much nicer than her old fruit cake recipe, and always bakes this one instead, these days.

It is rich enough to use as a Christmas cake, and has been known to be used this way.

It is also the recipe that Moira used for many used as a pre-school cooking activity, baking small cakes in foil strawberry punnets (remember those?)

From a non-fruit cake lover, I don’t mind this one.

This recipe will make 2 8 inch square cakes or 11-12 small tin cakes (strawberry punnet size)

 

 Put the following in s large saucepan and boil for 3 minutes

500g butter

2 2/3 cups (500g) brown sugar

2 cups cold water

375g currants

375g sultanas

375g raisins

2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp mixed spice

 

Allow to cool.

 

Add:

125g almonds

125g dried dates

125g glace cherries

125g mixed peel

4 Tbsp orange juice (could use rum instead)

2 tsp lemon essence

 

Now beat in

4 eggs

 

Fold in softly

250g plain flour                        \

375g self raising flour              |- all sifted together

1 tsp salt                                 /

 

Spoon into greased tins and decorate with glace cherries and almonds (allow approximately 3 packets of each)

 Bake at 150^oC for

            45 minutes – 1 ¼ hours in small tins or

            1 ½ hours in big tins

Christmas Cake

THE recipe.

Yes, this really is it.

This cake has been eaten in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Nepal, UK, Canada, Antarctica…  and that is just by us (let me know if I have left anywhere out)

Mum usually made this around the end of October or the beginning of November, starting my leaving the chopped fruit soaking in rum for a few days.  She would also periodically turn the cake while it was stored, flipping it from time to time to keep it moist through.

As an interesting anecdote, I have “refreshed” old sections of this cake after several months by sprinkling it with more rum.  (I don’t actually like the cake myself, but feel compelled, every few years, to bake one for old time’s sake.)

65g apricots or crystallised pineapple

65g crystallised ginger

65g figs

65g dates

250g sultanas

250g currants

250g raisins

125g chopped peel

65g almonds

65g walnuts

65g drained cherries

½ cup of rum

250g butter

250g brown sugar

5 eggs

1 teaspoon Parisian essence

1 teaspoon almond essence

1 teaspoon glycerine

2 teaspoons of golden syrup

2 teaspoons of raspberry or plum jam

Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

315g plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

 

Chop up all fruits and add rum.  Cover.  Allow to stand overnight (at least).

Line an 8” square or round tin with one thickness of brown paper and then one thickness of greaseproof paper.

Cream butter and sugar well.

Add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly.

Add essences, glycerine, golden syrup, jam, lemon rind and lemon juice.

Add sifted dry ingredients and fruit alternately to mixture until it has all been added.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.  Decorate the top of the cake with cherries and almonds.  Bake at 150-160^oC, with the top element off, for 3 to 3½ hours.  (Bake at 150^oC for 4½ to 3 hours for double the mixture.)

When the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and trickle 2 tablespoons of rum over the cake while it is still hot.  Wrap the cake, tin and all, in several layers of brown paper and then in a towel and allow to cool slowly.  (It is nice to bake the cake several weeks before Christmas.  Unwrap the cake, trickle a little more rum over it and re-wrap it in paper to help keep it moist.)