How about this one - uses the boiling method so you don't have to do the whirling dervish with a wooden spoon bit to get the sugar and butter to combine!
140 gm unsalted butter
175 gm muscovado light sugar.
250ml smooth orange juice
200 gm glace cherries
100 gm raisins
60 gm mixed peel
200 gm dried apricots, cut into bits (slice lengthwise then 3 crosscuts = 6 bits)
Slap that lot into a big pan (preferably fairly heavy - I use a jam pan) and gradually bring up to a boil, stirring some of the time with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat to a low simmer and keep it at that for 10 mins before removing from the heat and let it cool for 15 mins or so.
Stir in 50 gms flaked almonds
Sift together:
300 gm plain flour
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
Add to the pan (together with 50 gm ground almonds if like me you like 'em)
2 large eggs - beat lightly first then add to pan.
Stir the whole lot together to mix it adequately.
COULD add a tablespoonful of cointreau for a nice orange fragrance, or spaggy brandy, even calvados if you wish. No more than a tablespoonful though unless you have started by reducing the volume of orange juice accordingly.
Warm up your oven to about 140 if a fan oven or c160 if not.
Line your cake tin with greased greaseproof, including the base.
Sling the mix into the tin and chuck into the oven (middle if not fan) for an hour and a quarter - then check it with a skewer which should come out clean and the cake should be lightly browned. If you think it needs a little longer, sling it back in for another 10-15 mins.
Let it sit in the tin to cool for 15 mins then out of the tin, ease the greaseproof off and cool on a rack so air can get under it. Let it cool completely.
After Palm Sunday you can use this as the base for a wonderful simnel cake - after the mixing put just over HALF the mix in the cake tin then lay a thin disk of marzipan over it before adding the rest of the mix. After baking and cooling, roll out the rest of the marzipan (I usually start with about 250 gm to do both disks plus the balls) big enough to cover the cake and use the trimmings to make 11 marzi balls. Paint the top of the cake with a dab of apricot jam to stick the marzipan disk on then a dab on each ball to stick 'em in a circle evenly spaced round the edge. Let the apricot jam 'glue' set a bit. Finishing touch if you want to show off is to dust a bit of icing sugar over the whole thing and then lightly brown under a grill!
Similar idea but with just the middle layer of marzipan and do it in a loaf tin as a non-yeast alternative to stollen come Christmas time.
This is one of the few cake type thingies that I succeed with every single time - and I aint no cook or chef!
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August 28, 2009, 21:37