Dark Fruit Cake Recipe

by Rockrecipes.blogspot.com

This is my favourite classic fruitcake, with just enough cake to hold together the beautiful well-spiced dark fruits and nuts.


Dark Fruit Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 6 oz dried prunes, chopped

• 6 oz dates, chopped

• 8 oz dark raisins

• 6 oz golden raisins

• 6 oz currants

• ¾ cup butter

• 1 cup dark brown sugar

• ¾ cup molasses

• ½ cup coffee liqueur (or ½ cup strong black coffee)

• Zest and juice of 2 oranges

• 8 oz glace cherries

• 8 oz candied citrus peel

• 8 oz toasted pecans, roughly chopped

• 1 tsp allspice

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• ½ tsp cloves

• 1 tsp nutmeg

• 3 tbsp cocoa

• 3 eggs

• 1 & 1/3 cups all purpose flour

• ½ cup ground hazelnuts or almonds

• ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda


Preparation:

• Grease a 9 inch springform pan or 10 inch tube pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

• In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat and add the raisins, dates, prunes, currents, brown sugar, molasses, spices, coffee liqueur and the orange zest and juice. Bring to a gentle boil and slowly simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 30-45 minutes. When cool stir in the beaten eggs.

• Sift together, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and ground nuts and fold through the boiled mixture. Fold in cherries, citrus peel and pecans. Pour into prepared baking pan. You can decorate the top with additional pecan halves, cherries etc., if you like.

• Bake at 300 degrees F for 1 ½ to 2 hours depending upon the size of your pan. The cake should feel firm to the touch at the center. The cake should be cooled completely in the pan on a wire rack before removing.


• At this point you can poke small holes in the top and bottom of the cake with a fork and pour on 4 ounces of dark rum or your favourite whiskey, half on the top, wait ten minutes, then flip it over and pour the remaining half on the bottom.

• Soak several layers of cheesecloth in additional rum if you like and wrap completely around the cake, then cover with several layers of plastic wrap and store in a COOL place. When serving, you can add a layer of marzipan or if you have decorated the top with fruit and nuts, brush with a simple glaze of equal parts water and sugar boiled together for about 10-15 minutes.


*Hope you enjoyed this dark fruit cake recipe, now I'd like to tell you about my favorite diet program that uses a lot of the healthy lower GI foods: Isabel de los Rios' 'The Diet Solution Program'.

The Diet Solution Program favours a long term health orientated approach to fat loss, but not offering anyone a quick fix to their weight troubles. It has loads of valuable data and research to support its approach. I personally investigated the program thoroughly and my mum has been using it for a while now. I have to say she got some great results.

The nutrition plan is one of the healthiest we have seen, a strong core focus on vegetables, fruits, vitamin dense foods, lean proteins, select dairy produce and a clear approach to not expecting one diet to work for all body types. So give it a try and let me know how you’re doing.*

Original Dark Fruit Cake Recipe