I was looking for more fruitcake recipes, ones not including banana for preference. Not that I dislike banana breads, far from it, but a change is as good as a rest. Anyhow, when I came across a recipe for ‘easy’ fruitcake, that made me look twice. It was made with oil, rather than butter, which was a good thing as I don’t currently have much in the fridge. It was also made as a layer cake rather than a loaf, so the cooking time was considerably reduced on the 1 hr-long bakings of recent experience. It wanted a layer of apricot jam in the centre, which I didn’t have, but I knew that I had several jams or other preserves that I though would do the job instead. It sounded like a plan.
Now this was an on-line recipe and I generally take a look at the comments, jus to see if there are any hints, etc., that would be useful. The comments were about 50-50 split between ‘lovely cake, very flavoursome’ and ‘yuck-tasted of oil’; that was worrying, but it seemed that everyone commenting ‘yuck’ had used olive oil. I’d never use olive oil in a cake mixture (unless very specifically stated in the recipe), it has far too heavy a taste (although I do use it for savoury cooking ), and this recipe stated ‘flavourless oil’, so I reckoned that the ‘yuck’ crowd got what they deserved. I’d give it a go using my other standard cooking oil, Becel, a mixture of sunflower and canola that generally works well in baking applications.
It’s a UK recipe, so I used the metric measurements. I have tried to convert to imperial, but not to cups.
Easy Fruitcake
| 175 ml (approx. 5½ fl oz) flavourless oil (not olive oil)* |
| 100 g/ 3.5 oz soft brown sugar** |
| 2 eggs, beaten |
| 225 g/ 7.9 oz plain (all-purpose) flour |
| 1 tsp baking powder |
| 1 tsp cinnamon |
| ½ tsp mixed spice*** |
| Juice of 1 orange**** |
| Juice of 1 lemon**** |
| 200 g/7 oz mixed dried fruits***** |
*I used Becel, a mixture of sunflower and canola oils
**Recipe specifies light brown muscovado sugar
***Recipe states allspice
**** Recipe states juice of ½ orange and ½ lemon
*****I used a mixture of sultana raisins, dried sweetened cranberries, finely chopped dried dates and halved glace cherries.
Preheat the oven to 325˚F/310 ˚F convection/160˚C/140 ˚C fan/Gas 3
Grease and line the bases of two 8”/20 cm springform or loose-bottom cake tins. Set aside.
I prepared all of the ingredients in separate bowls, ready for the mixing. When it came to allspice, I could not put my hand on it. I’m pretty sure I have some, somewhere, but instead I chose to use mixed spice. Its not the same as allspice though. Pumpkin spice might also make an alternative.
My orange and lemon were getting a little elderly, so it was good to use them up for this recipe, but I think that they didn’t give as much juice as fresher fruit. Although the recipe stated juice from only half of each fruit, I juiced both halves of both and decided to add what I thought was needed to make a soft batter. In the end, I used it all.
Place the oil and sugar into a bowl and mix well.
Add the eggs and stir to combine.
Place the flour, baking powder and spices into a separate bowl and whisk with a balloon whisk to make sure they are well-combined. Introduce the flour mixture to the oil/sugar/eggs mixture. Add the fruit juices and mix thoroughly, with a wooden spoon, until a soft batter is formed.
Fold in the fruit mixture. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared tins.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until risen and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave in the tins, lying on a wire rack, to cool completely. Remove from the tins for filling.
The original recipe suggests filling with apricot jam, followed by dusting the top with icing sugar. I thought that the cakes looked a little dry (although the proof of that pudding will be in the eating!) so I thought I’d sub in some buttercream. Not just any old buttercream, but a recipe for ‘custard buttercream’ that I’d recently found and which intrigued me. Anyway, fruitcake and custard, what’s not to like! I always have a tin of custard powder in the cupboard-you never know when the custard urge will hit, and I did have sufficient butter for this.
Custard Buttercream
Makes sufficient to fill a 7-8” sandwich cake
| 75 g /2½ oz unsalted butter, softened. |
| 150 g/ 5½ oz icing sugar (confectioner’s or powdered sugar) |
| ½ tsp vanilla extract |
| 2 tbsp custard powder |
| 2 tbsp milk or cream* |
*I used 18% (single) cream (coffee cream)
Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and set it beating.
Add the sugar, custard powder, vanilla and cream to the mixer and beat until smooth, light and fluffy.
This was a very quick buttercream and came together very well. it didn’t make huge amounts, more a UK sandwich fill than a North American one, so I’d suggest 1½ or 2 times the amount if you like a really thick filling. It did have a ‘custardy’ taste. I used the buttercream to sandwich together the two thin fruitcakes and finished the whole thing off with a dredge of icing sugar. It doesn’t look bad!
It’s quite a spicy cake and a little on the dry side, just now, but I expect it will be quite a lot moister tomorrow, in keeping with most oil-based sponges. The custard buttercream worked well with the spicy cake. Goes down nice with a cup of tea. Oh, and it didn’t taste of oil, either!
The Pudding Queen 