fig, apricot and prune cake
Happy new year everyone! I hope the year 2013 will be a healthy, peaceful one for all! Can you believe that I received MORE cookery books for Christmas? I haven’t counted how many I already have but the number is embarassingly high. I have had to take a few in the loft to make space for the new ones. Even more embarassing is the fact that I usually end up cooking from a handful of them. I reckon I could make something new every day of my life and still not manage to go through all the recipe books I have got. This won’t do! My new year resolution is going to be: cook ONE recipe from at least each of the books I have on my kitchen shelf this year. And of course, if they work out you’ll be the first ones to know! Anyway let me blog this lovely moist cake which I have successfully made a few times already, the last one being during the Christmas holidays. I don’t particularly like the traditional English Christmas cake. I find it a bit too sweet and too rich. Same goes for the Christmas pudding. This particular fruit cake, however, is a bit different as it contains figs, apricots and prunes instead of the usual raisins and sultanas. It is soft and moist without being sickeningly sweet. It’s absolutely lovely with a cup of tea or coffee so I advice all those cake fans out there to make it for their friends. They will be thankful! By the way it is by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Surprise surprise HIS cookery books are getting properly thumbed in my house. But what can I say? His recipes are brilliant!
INGREDIENTS
225g light wholemeal cake flour or spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of sea salt
1 rounded tsp ground mixed spice
150g dried figs
150g stoned prunes
150g dried apricots
85g orange marmalade
Zest 1 lemon, finely grated
Zest 1 orange, finely grated
200g unsalted butter, softened
200g light muscovado sugar
4 medium eggs
METHOD
1. Lightly grease a 20cm springform cake tin and line with baking parchment. Put the flour, baking powder, salt and spice into a bowl and whisk lightly to aerate and combine.
2. Use kitchen scissors to cut the dried fruit into chunky pieces – cut each fig into about 6, removing the hard stalk, and each prune and apricot into 2 or 3. Combine them in a bowl. Beat the marmalade with a fork to loosen it, then stir in the lemon and orange zest. Combine the marmalade with the dried fruit.
3. Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat well until very light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour/spice mix with each. Fold in the remaining flour with a large metal spoon, then fold in the marmalade and dried fruit as lightly as you can. Try not to overmix it; everything should be just combined.
4. Spoon into the prepared tin and place in an oven preheated to 160°C/gas mark 3. Bake for 1½ hours, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
Hi Lucina! sei appena andata via ed eccomi qui sola nella nostra casetta barcellonese che mi preparo per uscire ma non ho potuto resistere e mandarti un messaggio anche da qui. Vedo che hai postato un proposito per il nuovo anno. Insieme a tutti quelli che ci siamo dette in questi giorni di camminate, mangiate e chiacchierate chiacchierate. Il proposito che io ti chiedo è di rimanere sempre così!
Non preoccuparti, carissima! Ormai a me non mi cambia più nessuno! Spero stessa cosa per te…:-)