A traditional French Christmas delight, Cake Aux Fruit Confit (Fruitcake) comes with a fluffy texture and flavours enriched from rum-soaked dried fruit and raw nuts such as almonds, walnuts and macadamia. The cake is finished with a layer of vanilla orange syrup with an apricot glaze that creates a mirror like effect on its surface lending this treat an exquisite look.
Ingredients
Basic Mix
183 grams soft butter
200 grams eggs
166 grams icing sugar
16 grams trimoline or honey
210 grams rose flour
7 grams baking powder
75 grams crushed nuts
10 grams dark rum
Candied Dry Fruit
100 grams gold raisins
50 grams mixed candied fruit
1 gram lemon zest
1 gram orange zest
83 grams candied cherries
235 grams rum or orange juice
Syrup
250 grams sugar
250 grams water or rum (strained from the making the candied dry fruit)
Skin from 1 whole orange
2 sticks vanilla
50 grams rum
Method
- Soak all candied-dry fruits in rum/orange juice for at least 48 hours at room temperature.
- Strain the candied-dry fruits and reserve the liquid for later use.
- Separately, add soft butter, eggs, icing sugar, Trimoline/honey and dark rum into mixer or heavy-duty food processor and mix for at least 2 minutes to get a smooth, creamy and shiny texture.
(Tip: Mix the ingredients using lowest speed and increase slowly, avoid creating bubbles) - Add the baking powder and rose flour into the mixture and mix thoroughly. Mix until you achieve a smooth, creamy and shiny texture.
- Add the strained candied-dry fruits and crushed nuts into the mixture.
- Pour the mixture into a transparent wrapping paper.
- Chill the mixture for 4 – 24 hours.
- Brush a thin layer of butter and flour on the mould.
- Beat the chilled mixture in mixer or heavy-duty food processor for 1 minute and pour it into the mould.
- You can decorate using several types of raw nuts and candied fruits on top of the mixture before baking it.
- Bake at 155°C for 45 minutes.
- While the cake is baking, make syrup.
- Start by boiling the liquid that was put aside earlier from the candied fruit. Add in 50 grams of rum, 250 grams of sugar, skin from one whole orange and two vanilla sticks.
- When the cake is baked and cool, apply a layer of syrup on the surface.
(Tip: For a mirror-like finish, after applying the syrup, brush the top of your cake with an apricot glaze. This can be bought in gelatin form in the supermarket. Just pour appropriate amount into a small saucepan. Heat until melted and strain it to remove any apricot chunks).
