Fruitcake

I had always shared the opinions of Jim Gaffigan on fruitcake, until...

'Fruit, good. Cake, great. Fruitcake, nasty crap'. These were my thoughts, until I found the remains of a bottle of brandy that had been kicking around my liquor cupboard since god knows when, and instead of doing the sensible thing and throwing it out, or drinking it, I bought 5 different kinds of dried fruit and 2 kinds of nuts and made fruitcake. This recipe comes from Preppy Kitchen (https://preppykitchen.com/fruit-cake/#recipe). I doubled it to use up my brandy, I was pretty heavy handed with the spices and I add libbed a bit on the fruit and sugar in order to use up what I had based on the weight I could buy in a single bag at Tesco. It's a good workout for your biceps and your patience I tell ya.

Ingredients:

500g soft apricots (500g bag sold at Tesco)

440g soft figs (440g bag sold at Tesco)

200g crystallised ginger (200g jar sold at Tesco)

320g raisins

320g sultanas

Original recipe calls for 320g each dark and golden raisins, whatever that means

2 cups/480ml brandy or rum, plus more for brushing

400g glace cherry halves (200g pots sold at Tesco)

250g walnuts, chopped (250g bag sold at Tesco)

100g toasted flaked almonds (100g bag sold at Tesco)

6 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

2 cups/450g unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups/300g light brown sugar

1 1/2 cups/300g dark brown sugar

6 large eggs

2 Tbsp vanilla extract

Patience

Instructions:

Chop up the apricots, figs and ginger into small pieces.

In the biggest bowl you have, combine the apricots, figs, ginger, raisins and sultanas.

Add the brandy and stir, cover the bowl with cling film, weigh it down with a plate and leave the fruit to soak overnight or at least four hours.

Add the glace cherries, walnuts and flaked almonds to the dried fruit mixture and mix in.

Preheat the oven to 300˚F/150˚C, and grease and line 4 x 9 x 5in loaf pans.

I used disposable loaf pans with liners and this worked immensely well.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, ground ginger and nutmeg, set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth.

Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, c. 5 mins.

Beat in the eggs one at a time until well incorporated, scraping the bowl as you go.

Beat in the vanilla extract.

With the mixer on low, gradually beat in the flour mixture until just combined.

By hand, combine the batter and the soaked fruit, making sure to incorporate any remaining liquid in the fruit.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.

Bake for two hours or until a toothpick/knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out to cool completely.

You can brush the hot cakes with rum or brandy if you so wish.