The theme for this weeks bake had to be Scottish after a brilliant wedding in Arrochar for my cousin Ann and her husband Jamie. The chosen bake was a Dundee cake at my family’s request as I am not a fruit cake lover myself. So I set myself the task of my first proper fruit cake in a rental house with a gas oven that I’ve never used before, sounds easy right?! I had bought all the ingredients with me from home because you never really know in Scotland whether you are going to be a short walk from the shops or 30miles! Even the eggs remained intact throughout the whole 385 mile journey here. I used the BBC good food recipe as a basis for the cake, adapting slightly by using Dundee Marmalade instead of apricot jam. The cake also took a lot less time to cook than the recipe said but I don’t know whether that was the oven or the recipe.
Ingredients
- 100g of Blanched Almonds
- 180g of Butter
- 180g of Soft Brown Sugar
- Zest of 1 Orange
- 3 Whole eggs
- 3 Tbsp of orange marmalade
- 225g of Plain flour
- 1/2 tsp of Baking powder
- 100g of Ground Almonds
- 2 Tbsp of Milk
- 500g of Mixed fruit
- 100g of Glacé Cherries
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees celcius. Greece and line a 20cm cake tin.
- Soak the blanched whole almonds in boiling water just enough to cover them.
- Beat the softened butter until no lumps, add the sugar and cream together until pale. Add the orange zest and orange marmalade.
- Whisk the eggs and weigh flour and baking powder, add the eggs slowly into the butter mixture if it starts to curdle as a little of the flour. Once all the eggs are added, mix in the remaining flour and ground almonds.
- Combine the fruit, cherries and milk and mix until no lumps.
- Add to the cake tin and decorate with the blanched almonds in circles.
- Bake in the oven for 45 minutes then lower the temperature to 140 degrees celcuis for 20 minutes.
- Remove from tin and allow to cool completely.
Willey's Weekly Bake 