Dried fruit and nuts cake

Dried fruit and nut cake (recipe adapted from Mary Berry’s recipe http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/430420/Mary-Berry-s-Victorian-Christmas-cake)

Packed with juicy fruits and nuts with a hint of lemon flavor. Crumbly but moist.

Ingredients:

400g dried fruit (I used apricot, purple grape, green grape.)

Water

300g nuts (I used hazel nuts, walnuts, almond)

150g self raising flour

70g brown sugar

1tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 lemon

50ml milk

80ml vegetable oil

2 eggs

Method

1.    Cut dried fruits into 1cm cubes if they are big. Put dried fruits in a bowl. Add boiling water into bowl until dried fruits are covered. Leave for about 3 hours until fruits get plump.

2.    If necessary, chop nuts into desirable size.

3.    After fruits get plump, put all of it in a sauce pan and boil vigorously until the water reduces to less than 50 ml. Separate fruits and water with a sieve and cool.

4.    Prepare cake tin with baking paper on the bottom and sides.

5.    Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, lemon zest and stir until all is combined.

6.    Add milk, beaten egg, oil into dry ingredients and fold it in.

7.    Add nuts and cooled fruits, fold.

8.    Put the mixture into cake tin.

9.    Decorate the top with nuts if you like.

10.  Bake in 160C oven for 40 minutes. While baking, add lemon juice into syrup. After 40 minutes, take it out and cover the surface with syrup. Bake again for 20 minutes. When the surface begins to brown, cover the top with foil and bake for another 30 minutes.

11.  Leave to cool.

This is what you get.