It’s bakemas 2020!
If it’s your first bakemas here, welcome. It is my annual mini-series in which I show you how to make a various Christmas themed baked goods – perfect if you want to impress your family and/or friends or if you’re hosting a festive get together.
Today’s recipe is for a really simple iced fruit cake slice – this way you’re having the element of a fruit cake without having a whole fruit cake this is the perfect treat to make and give to friends and family wrapped up as a present or just to share with them, as it tis the season to share.
Even the people who don’t like fruit cake will like this you have a semi traditional fruit cake which is topped with a thin layer of marzipan, which is then topped with a thin layer of icing sugar and finished with a sugar paste holly leaf.
Like most people are feeling right now, it doesn’t feel very festive at all. 2020 has been the weirdest year of my life (as it has for many others), however you’re celebrating Christmas it wouldn’t quite be Christmas time without some form of fruit cake and that’s why I’m sharing my recipe today. It’s a little different he’s not a traditional it’s more of a twist on a traditional so I hope you don’t mind that.
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
Cake:
150g butter.
150g light brown sugar.
3 eggs.
125g plain flour.
50g ground almonds.
1 tsp ground cinnamon.
½ tsp ground mixed spice.
A dash of ground ginger, cloves, all spice and nutmeg.
450g mixed dried fruit.
Decoration:
150g marzipan.
150g white sugar paste.
25g green sugar paste.
apricot glaze.
water.
Method:
Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of the ingredients, lining an 8×8 inch square cake tin with parchment and grabbing any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatula. Don’t forget to preheat the oven to 150˚c/300˚f.
To start on the cake, grab a bowl and place in the butter and light brown sugar – beat the two together until they are combined. You’re not looking for he mixture to be light and fluffy, just well combined.
You can then add in your eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition. Don’t worry if the mixture curdles a little, we’ll correct it now.
Over a sieve, add your plain flour, ground spices and ground almonds and sift that into the mixture. You can then go ahead and add in the fruit.
Mix everything together until everything is incorporated – try your best not to over-mix the cake batter, otherwise the end result will be tough.
Give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in earlier on.
Then transfer the cake batter into your lined cake tin and spread/level the cake better out until its smooth and level, them place into your preheated oven and bake for 60-90 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool fully (while still in the tin).
Whenever the cake has cooled and you’re ready to decorate – you can remove the cake from the tin.
Dust your work surface with a small amount of icing sugar and place on the marzipan and roll it out until its big enough for the top of the cake. I eyeballed this but feel free measure and be more accurate.
Take a small amount and apricot jam and melt it in the microwave/on the hob until smooth and spreadable. Brush this generously on top of the cake and then place the rolled out marzipan on top – set the cake aside while you prepare the final layer.
Dust your work surface with some icing sugar and roll out the sugar paste to be big enough for the top of the cake. To secure the sugar paste in place, brush over a small amount of water and then place the rolled out sugar paste on top.
Roll out the green sugar paste and cut out holly leaves and dampen the back, then secure to the top of the cake .
The you can slice them up into 16 generous portions and enjoy, this is the perfect recipe to make and share with friends and/or family.
That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.