Marzipanned Fruit cake

This cake is a joy to make. Butter and sugar are beaten until fluffy, then eggs, citrus zest, fruits, flour, spices and ground almonds are beaten in. The mixture is baked until golden, then the cake wrapped and stored for decoration, fed from time to time with extra brandy.

Marzipanned Fruit Cake

Ingredients


This cake is a joy to make. Butter and sugar are beaten until fluffy, then eggs, citrus zest, fruits, flour, spices and ground almonds are beaten in. The mixture is baked until golden, then the cake wrapped and stored for decoration, fed from time to time with extra brandy.

100g/4oz crystallised pineapple
100g/4oz glacé cherries
50g/2oz crystallised ginger
175g/6oz candied peel, unchopped
200g/8oz sultanas
4 tbsp brandy or orange juice, plus extra brandy for feeding the cake once made
175g/6oz mixed shelled nuts such as brazils, almonds and hazelnuts
200g/8oz softened butter
200g/8oz golden caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
grated zest and juice of 1 orange
200g/8oz plain flour
5g/1tsp ground cinnamon
100g/4oz ground almonds
you will need a deep 20cm/8in round cake tin



Method
1. Have ready a deep 20cm/8in round cake tin. Cut a double thickness strip of greaseproof paper: it should be 5cm/2in deeper than your cake tin and long enough to wrap round the tin with a slight overlap. Make a 2.5cm/1in crease along the long folded edge.
2. Cut out two rounds of greaseproof paper to fit the base of the tin (the easiest way to do this is to sit the tin on the double thickness paper and draw round with a pencil, then cut round the line).
3. Butter the base and sides of the tin and fit the long strip of paper around the inside. Put the rounds of paper in the base of the tin.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
5. Chop the pineapple, quarter the cherries, chop the ginger and peel. Mix together all the fruit in a bowl and pour over the brandy or orange juice. Chop the nuts, but keep them separate.
6. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar using a hand-held mixer or wooden spoon (about 3 minutes with a mixer or 5 minutes by hand) until light and fluffy.
7. Beat the eggs in a jug. Add to the creamed mixture a little at a time, beating after each addition. Do not worry if it curdles, this will not affect the cake.
8. Beat in the orange zest and juice, then add the soaked fruit and the liquid. Stir in the chopped nuts.
9. Set a sieve over the bowl. Tip the flour and cinnamon into the sieve and sift them into the bowl.
10. Tip in the ground almonds, then fold everything into the mixture using a large spoon or the mixer blades. There should be no traces of unmixed flour.
11. Spoon the cake mixture in to the prepared tin. Press down lightly and smooth the top with the back of a metal spoon.
12. Bake for 1 hour, then reduce to 140C/275F/Gas 1 and bake for 2-2½ hours until golden brown, firm to the touch and it has stopped singing (the hissing sound made during baking).
13. Feeding the cake with extra brandy after baking is a lovely old custom. Invert the cake when cold and make several holes in the base with a skewer. Spoon 30ml/2tbsp brandy over the holes so it soaks in. Re-wrap and feed at 1-2 weekly intervals until ready to ice.

Note: To marzipan a cake, level the top of the cake by cutting if necessary and put upside down on the cakeboard. Pierce the cake a few times with a cocktail stick and drizzle with brandy. Heat apricot jam until boiling and spread around the sides and top of the cake. Dust your work surface with icing sugar and knead the marzipan until pliable. Roll out and cover the cake. Smooth into position and trim and neaten the base.
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