Anyone know a really easy recipe for a fruit cake? Anyone got some good tips on fruitcake making?

Question

Want something simple and English preferably! Post tips too please!!!

Answer 1

Mixed Fruit 500gram
Flour 150gram
Salt half teaspoon
Mixed Spice half teaspoon
Eggs 2
Milk 4 tablespoons
Butter 100gram
Sugar Brown 100gram
Ground Almonds50gram
Soak the fruit in pure orange juice for 24 hours (or sherry or brandy hic')
drain any extra liquid away
mix everytthing together, line a 2lb or 1 kilo backing tin with greased grease proof paper pour in your mixture and bake in middle of hot oven
until a knitting needle pushed in the middle of the cake
comes out clean.

Answer 2

Treat like a christmas cake.

Ingredients6 oz flour
5 oz butter
Juice and rind of half a lemon
½ lb sultanas
3 oz mixed peel
2 oz flaked almonds
3 eggs
5 oz castor sugar
1 teaspoonful mixed spice
4 oz raisins
3 oz glacé cherries
1½ tablespoons milk
½ tablespoon black treacle
1 tablespoon rum or brandy
RecipeClean the fruit, peel, sultanas and raisins.
Chop the cherries and almonds.
Mix all the fruit together, rubbing it with a little flour to stop it sticking. Shake off the surplus flour.
Warm the butter to soften it, then cream it with the sugar until it is light.
Break the eggs and beat them lightly.
Whisk and beat the warm butter paste as you slowly add the eggs, until it is fluffy.
In order, gently mix in the
mixed spice,
flour, using a sieve,
fruit and rind,
lemon juice and milk,
treacle and liquor,
so that the mixture is of a stiff dropping consistency.
Add the mixture to a 8" tin lined with greaseproof paper.
Bake the cake for 2 hours at 350°F.
Cover the top of the cake with a piece of greaseproof paper.
Bake the cake for 2 to 2½ hours at 300°F.
Marzipan pasteCover the top of the cake with this marzipan paste when you bring it out of storage. The paste may need a few days to harden.

Ingredients8 oz ground almonds
10 oz icing sugar
A few drops lemon juice
1 egg white
A little apricot jam
RecipeApply the jam in a thin layer to the top of the cake to help the marzipan stick.
Knead the remaining ingredients into a paste.
Spread the paste over the jam.
Run a rolling pin lightly over the top of the cake to make it level for the icing.
If you have difficulty spreading the paste onto the cake and flattening the top, you can instead roll it like pastry on a board first, using castor sugar in place of flour.

IcingAfter applying the marzipan paste to the cake, use a palette knife to spread this icing onto it, keeping some back to use for decoration. The icing may need a few days to harden.

Ingredients2 egg whites
1 lb icing sugar
1 teaspoonful lemon juice
2 drops blue food colouring (optional)
RecipeBreak the eggs carefully and put the whites into a basin.
Whisk the egg whites well.
Add the sifted sugar slowly to the egg whites, stirring all the while.
Use a spoon to make the mixture smooth.
Stir in the lemon juice and optional food colouring.
Apply to the cake.

Answer 3

Try the following
Ingredients
4 oz (110 g) glacé pineapple, roughly chopped
6 oz (175 g) red and green glacé cherries, roughly chopped
8 oz (225 g) sultanas
4 oz (110 g) dried apricots, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons brandy
4 oz (110 g) pecan nuts, roughly chopped
4 oz (110 g) whole, mixed candied peel, chopped small
2 oz (50 g) angelica, chopped small
2 oz (50 g) crystallised ginger, chopped small
grated zest 1 medium orange
grated zest 1 medium lemon
8 oz (225 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz (225 g) caster sugar
4 large eggs
8 oz (225 g) plain flour, sifted
2 oz (50 g) ground almonds
¼ level teaspoon salt
Begin the night before by placing the sultanas and chopped apricots in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the brandy, cover and leave overnight.

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3, 325°F (170°C). Add the rest of the nuts, fruit and peels into the sultanas and apricots. Tick everything off as you go.

Now whisk with an electric hand whisk the butter and sugar in another large mixing bowl until pale and fluffy. Then beat the eggs and add them to the butter and sugar, a very small amount at a time, whisking well after every addition. When all the eggs are incorporated, lightly fold in the sifted flour and salt, followed by the ground almonds and then all the fruit, nuts, etc.

Now transfer the mixture to the tin, levelling it off with the back of a spoon, and place the tin in the oven so the top of it is more or less in the centre. Bake the cake for 1 hour then place a double sheet of greaseproof paper over the top of the tin and turn the heat down to gas mark 2, 300°F (150°C), for a further 2-2¼ hours. When it's cooked it will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin and be springy in the centre when you press lightly with your little finger. You can leave this cake in the tin till it's absolutely cold then peel off the papers and wrap it in double greaseproof paper before storing in an airtight container

or Quick boiled fruit cake
1 x 397g/14oz can condensed milk
150g/5oz margarine
225g/5oz raisins
225g/8oz sultanas
175g/6oz currants
175g/6oz glace cherries, roughly chopped
225g/8oz self-raising flour
2tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs

Method
1. preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas2. Lightly grease and line a 18cm/7in deep round cake tin with greased greaseproof paper.
2. Pour the condensed milk into a heavy-based pan and add the margarine, fruit and glace cherries. Place over a low heat until the condensed milk and margarine have melted. Stir well, then simmer gently for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave on one side to cool for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Measuring the flour and spices into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the eggs and the cooled fruit mixture and quickly mix together until well blended. Turn into the prepared tin.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1¾-2 hours or until the cake is well risen, golden brown and the top feels firm. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then turn out and leave to cool completely on a wire rack

Answer 4

What I do is mince up some raisins, currants, prunes marachino cherries and apricots then add enough rum to cover them.

Let them marinade for about a week.

Make your usual plain cake batter and then add the fruit. Here we add "Cross and Blackwell browning" to make the cake dark (not too much or you will make the cake bitter). You dont have to add the browning if you don't want to.

Bake in a 350 oven for 1 - 1 1/2 or until done.

Sprinkle some more rum over the cake when you take it out of the oven. Let cool and remove from hte pan.