Can you believe that it’s that time of year again?! Time for long sunny days, spending time with family, Christmas day braai’s and beach bats, and most importantly, indulging in loads of Traditional Fruit Cake!! We know fruitcake is one of those foods that you either love or hate. We, personally, are on the love side and think that a great fruitcake is synonymous with Christmas spirit!

What could be better than luxurious spiced and soaked dried fruit enveloped in a beautiful cake and drenched with brandy? We were so excited about it that we went ahead and baked our fruitcake for Christmas already! If you’re a fruitcake aficionado, you’d know that you need to start preparing your fruitcake well ahead of when you want to bake it as the fruit mixture needs to be given some tender loving care for as long as possible. Real fruitcake lovers would soak the fruit in the brandy liquid for weeks before baking the cake and not to mention douse the baked cake with extra brandy for that festive kick. Thus, ensuring that your fruitcake will be moist and moreish and something that no one can withstand!

Here is our recipe – passed down from Ouma-to-Ouma over the years and one that is incredibly perfect in our eyes. What makes our recipe SO easy is that you only need to buy one fruitcake mix! Our Capedry Cake Mix contains everything that your traditional fruitcake recipe needs – sliced almonds, cherries, citrus peel, sultanas, raisins, currants etc. It’s well balanced, affordable and will save you time!

 

INGREDIENTS

Makes 2 standard loaf cakes or 1 round (springform tin) cake

Soaking Mixture

¼ cup brandy

¼ cup lemon juice

2 tbsp Van Der Hum liqueur (or more brandy)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1,5 kg Capedry Cake Mix

 

Cake Mixture

250 g butter, room temperature

225 g brown sugar

4 eggs

250 g cake flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp dried ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

2 loaf tins OR 1 large springform cake tin – lined well with non-stick baking paper

¼ cup brandy, for drizzling

 

METHOD

1. Combine all the Soaking Mixture ingredients in a large Tupperware container. Make sure your container seals extremely well! Do this anywhere from 1 week to 1 month before you want to bake your cake. Every couple of days, shake the container and turn it upside down so that the fruit and liquid mix together again. This way you make sure that your fruit soak up all the delicious liquid and get nice and plump.
2. When you’re ready to bake your cake – preheat the oven to 160° Now, cream together the butter and sugar until light in colour and very fluffy using an electric beater.
3. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift all of your dried ingredients into the butter mixture and fold through to combine (do not overmix).
4. Now add in all your soaking mixture into the cake batter and fold through to combine (again – don’t overmix).
5. Spoon your cake batter into the cake tin(s) and bake for 2½ hours or until a cake skewer inserted into the middle of the cake(s) comes out clean.
6. Quickly prick holes into the cake(s) with the cake skewer and drizzle the ¼ cup of brandy evenly over the cake(s). Let cool completely. You can now keep drizzling over some extra brandy every couple of days to make sure your cake stays super moist and delicious

Enjoy and wishing you all the best for this special Christmas season.