English Fruit Cake with Almonds
Dried fruit makes this English fruit cake with almonds possible for Spoonsparrow.
Ingredients
- 125 g dried apricots (pitted)
- 125 g dried dates (pitted)
- 175 g raisins
- 50 g cranberries
- 50 g soft prunes
- 250 ml Almond drink (Almond milk)
- 1 Organic Orange
- 1 Organic lemon
- 220 g butter
- 2 tbsp honey
- 6 Eggs
- 220 g spelt whole‑grain flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- a pinch salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- 50 g chopped almonds
- 200 g almonds (peeled)
Instructions
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1.
Cut dried apricots and dates into small pieces with a knife. Combine with raisins, cranberries and prunes in a narrow tall vessel, pour almond drink over them. Wash orange and lemon hot, dry‑rub and grate the zest. Add this to the fruits, stir, cover with foil and let sit overnight. Squeeze the citrus fruits and set aside the juice.
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2.
On the next day, strain the fruit mixture through a sieve and allow it to drain well.
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3.
Beat soft butter until fluffy, add honey, continue beating until a fluffy buttercream forms. Gradually fold in eggs one at a time. Mix spelt flour with baking powder, a pinch of salt, cinnamon and cocoa. Sift over the batter and stir in.
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4.
Fold dried fruit and chopped almonds into the batter in stages. If needed, grease a square oven‑proof pan with butter. Pour the batter in, smooth the top. Sprinkle peeled almonds on top, cover with parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C (160 °C fan; gas: level 2–3) for about 60–70 minutes. Test with a skewer. Remove, let cool slightly, then carefully break apart. While still warm, poke the cake with a knitting needle or wooden skewer a few times and drizzle with some of the orange‑lemon juice. Cool on a wire rack.
