Jaw breaking fruit cake help please

[lulu]

These are the ingrediants of the only fruit cake I've ever really loved!

2 cups dried apricots
1.5 cups dried figs
1 1/2 cups of brazil nuts
1 cup red and green glace cherries
1 cup candied pineapple
3/4 cup of all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tespoon of salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 teasoons of vanilla

Bake in a wreath shaped tin, lined and greased for 1 hour 4 mins at 300 f


My mother used to add in almonds, pecans and other glace fruits like angelica. Its a GREAT cake but a real jaw breaker. I'm considering bakling this but I'd like to decorate it with glace fruits...should I bake it, then glaze it with apricot jam to apply the fruits, and then put back in the oven? Or will the fruits just stick? Its so long since I did this!!!

Also, how would you feel presented with a cake that tastes great and like a dried fruit and nut salad more than fruit cake, but it required a small saw to cut it?? Is there anyway to keep the taste and the cruch but make the cake in all a bit softer, or do you think that would ruin the essential hard nuttiness of it?

 

[Bilby]

Wish I could help you on the glace fruit thing but whatever I say will only be a guess (and that would be that you decorate after baking but...).

Taking into consideration that, one, I don't care for nuts (except for cashews and pecans (pee-cans)!!), and two, went off of fruitcake a few years ago (see Suziequzie's thread on fruitcakes), my SIL went thru a phase of making stained glass window cakes which is gluten free and is really just dried fruit and nuts. I found it a chore to eat, but then hers also lacked sweetness. However for the right audience, I don't think it would be a problem but it won't appeal to all.

 

[lulu]

Now, does anyone have a recipe for stained window cakes? Beautiful name and sounds yummy. Maybe I'll keep the cake to family.

 

[Bilby]

Here you go!
Stained Glass Christmas Cake (no flour!) (no flour)
Stained Glass Window Cake :: Recipe :: ABC Western Queensland (flour)

Very similar to your mother's version!

 

[lulu]

OOOh, great thank you!

 

[Bilby]

No probs! I could have asked my SIL for hers but I'd go with the ABC (Aust Broadcasting Corp) instead!!! LOL The flour version might be better than the coeliac's version as well but having only ever had the flourless version, I'm not sure. All the best with it!

 

[urmaniac13]

I am not exactly sure how the nuts will withstand it to maintain their crunches, but to soften a hard/dry cake, how about soaking in liqueur, or alchermes? (If you want to reduce the alcoholic content you can dilute it with water) Or with this recipe rhum may work, too. This technique is quite common in Italy, also with a bit dried out pan d'spagna or to make specialty treats like Zuppa inglese.

Also another serving suggestion, if you serve it with various simple sweet sauce (not too fancy, as the cake is already bursting with flavours) that will moisten the cake, too.

Buon natale!

 

[suziquzie]

I was just thinking the same...... you could soak it with some Bourbon, rum, or brandy and wrap it up tightly.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Also, how would you feel presented with a cake that tastes great and like a dried fruit and nut salad more than fruit cake, but it required a small saw to cut it?? Is there anyway to keep the taste and the cruch but make the cake in all a bit softer, or do you think that would ruin the essential hard nuttiness of it?

This sounds like the cake is over cooked from the get go. The fruit cakes that we make are moist, and full of nuts (pecans) and cut with a knife. The weekly ritual of adding Kentucky Bourbon I'm sure adds moisture to help prevent drying out, but mostly it is done to add flavor over several weeks before Christmas.

 

[lulu]

I would try feeding it, I better make it tomorrow. Its not a traditional sort of fruitcake, which we DO feed with alcohol, and the flour is so barely there that there is not much to be moist or otherwise, it really just binds the cake which is in essence stuck together fruit and nuts. Thats why its so hard.

I'm going to make two, feed one, I think Li is right, with rum, and not the other and se what happens.