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A Delicious Dive into Boiled Fruit Cake Tradition

Boiled Fruit Cake made approachable with clear cues, pantry staples, and flexible swaps.
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Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 250 grams butter chopped into cubes
  • ½ cup brandy 125 ml
  • ½ cup water 125 ml
  • 1 cup brown sugar firmly packed (200 grams)
  • 500 grams mixed dried fruit 3 ½ cups
  • 1 cup plain flour / all purpose flour 145 grams
  • 1 cup self-raising flour 140 grams
  • 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
  • ½ teaspoon allspice
  • ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Method
 

  1. Place butter, brandy, water, brown sugar and mixed fruit into a large saucepan.
  2. Bring mixture to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
  3. Once mixture is off the heat, allow to cool to room temperature.
  4. While the mixture is cooling, pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celsius / 340 degrees fahrenheit, fan-forced and grease the round cake tin and line with 2 layers of baking paper.
  5. Once the mixture has cooled to room temperature, add the egg to the mixture and stir to combine.
  6. Sift the remaining dry ingredients into the mixture. Stir until combined.
  7. Pour mixture into prepared cake tin. Bake for 1 ½ hours or until the cake is a golden colour and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
  8. When you remove the cake from the oven, you can use a pastry brush to coat the top of the cake with a 2-3 tablespoons of brandy.
  9. Then, add a layer of foil to the top of the cake and wrap the entire cake (tin and all) in a clean tea towel.
  10. Once the cake is completely cool, or after a few days, remove the cake from the tin. You can opt to feed the cake with brandy again at this point.
  11. Wrap in foil and then in a clean tea towel and store in a cool, dry place for up to a few months.

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