Ginger, Salt & Pepper

I can’t get enough of fruit cakes during Christmas season. I often say it must be coded into me. I make at least 2 or 3 version of fruit cakes, at least one rum based and one which is not.

So yesterday it was time for yet another fruit cake, this time using Orange juice. This is very similar to my rum & fruit cake which involves boiling instead of soaking.

This recipe is good for a 10 inch round pan or 2 standard loaf pans

Ingredients

3 cups All purpose flour

1.5 tbsp Baking powder

4 Eggs

1/2 cup Vegetable oil

1.5 cups Sugar

1/2 cup Water

3 tbsp Pure vanilla extract

3 cups Mixed dried fruit & nuts

2 tsp Cinnamon powder

1 tsp Nutmeg powder

1 tsp Ginger powder

1 cup Orange juice

Recipe

1. Chop the mixed dried fruits & nuts coarsely. I have used dried sweetened cranberries & blueberries, tutti-frutti (mostly made of dried papaya), cashewnuts & almonds
2. Add this to a pan and mix with 1 tbsp of Vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp each of Cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger powder
3. Add the orange juice to this and boil until the liquid is almost gone and set aside to cool
4. In another pan, add sugar and water and bring to a boil. Let this syrup boil down to a consistency until the solution is slightly sticky and then add 1 tbsp of Vanilla extract to this
5. Let boil for another 5 minutes and turn off and let it cool
6. Set your oven to preheat at 350 F
7. Grease & dust and line your cake tins
8. Crack the eggs and whisk it homogenously along with the oil and remaining Vanilla extract
9. Once the dry fruits & nuts mixture has cooled completely, mix in 3/4 cups of flour to it coat evenly
10. Add the cooled sugar solution to the egg & oil mixture and mix well
11. Mix in the remaining flour to this along with the remaining spice powders. Whisk well to ensure no lumps are formed
12. Once the mix is lump free, add in the baking powder and mix thoroughly
13. Fold in the dry fruits mix to this batter gently, do not over mix
14. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tins
15. Bake at 350 F for 40 mins or until a skewer inserted in center comes out clean