I do not like Christmas cake. At all. For me it’s too dark, too dense and it’s not helped by the layers of marzipan and fondant icing.
This is my alternative – a light, fresh and fruity sponge cake.
It’s quick to bake and the ingredients are so much cheaper than a rich fruit cake.
Soaking your dried fruit overnight is worth the forward planning as it adds a lovely layer of flavour as well as plumping up the dried fruit before adding it to your cake batter. I like to keep a kilner jar of raisins and cranberries soaked in orange zest and orange juice in my fridge all the time – it keeps for ages. That way I’m always ready to add a handful or two of plump juicy fruit to my recipes.
You can add any fruit and nuts you wish to the recipe, make it your own. That’s the joy of baking, you can leave out the bits you don’t like and add more of your favourites. You want to be able to enjoy the finished cake, after all.
I have tried baking this cake using butter and with baking spread. Butter gives your cake both a richer flavour and texture. Butter is more expensive and it does need to be softened before use in this recipe. Baking spread can be used straight from the fridge, it’s cheaper than butter and it gives you a lighter cake in both texture and flavour.
It bakes in just 60 minutes, then it’s drizzled in an orange and maple syrup to add additional moisture and flavour. You can use honey instead of maple syrup if you prefer, the result is equally fabulous.
Than it’s finished with a layer of orange glace icing and adorned with a sprinkling of orange zest, cranberries and flaked almonds. Add a sprinkle of edible glitter to make it extra fabulous! Talking of fabulous, you can bake this cake in a Bundt tin if you have one. I have a love/hate relationship with my Bundt tin as my expectations are high but my cakes all too often stick despite greasing and flouring all the nooks and crannies. If you have a fool proof method I’d love to hear it!
The moisture in this lovely cake means it’ll keep well for a week, if you can avoid eating it that is!
- Ingredients:
- 1- 2 large oranges zested, use the juice for the cake, drizzle and icing
- 25g dried cranberries
- 50g sultanas
- 2 tbsp brandy or orange juice
- 225g unsalted butter, softened or baking spread
- 225g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 115g self raising flour
- 100g ground almonds
- 50g glacé cherries
- 50g flaked almonds
- For the drizzle and decoration:
- 3 tbsp clear honey
- 6 tbsp orange juice
- 200g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp dried cranberries
- 2 tbsp flaked almonds
- 1 orange, zested
Method:
Combine the orange zest, cranberries, sultanas and brandy or orange juice and leave to soak overnight.
Preheat oven to 190°C/180°C fan/gas 5
Line an 8 inch round cake tin with baking parchment paper. You can use a loose bottomed tin if you have one.
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time until combined.
Add a spoonful of flour with each egg if the mixture separates.
Add the rest of the flour along with the almonds and the soaked fruit mixture and combine gently.
Spoon the mixture into your prepared tin, spreading the batter to the edges and smoothing the top so it’s flat.
Bake in the oven for one hour, or until firm and golden brown on top.
Remove from the oven and set aside to cool in the tin for five minutes, before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool.
While your cake is cooling, make the drizzle. Mix the honey with 4 tbsp of the orange juice.
Put your cake onto a plate ready for serving.
Slowly spoon the orange drizzle all over the cake.
Once your cake is cold, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the remaining 1 tbsp of orange juice, stirring to combine. Don’t panic if you don’t have any orange juice left at this stage, you can use water instead.
Spoon the icing over the top of the cake, spreading it to the edges. Decorate with cranberries, flaked almonds and orange zest. Leave to set for an hour or two if you can!
Store your cake in an airtight container for up to a week.
Leftovers can also be frozen to enjoy another time.
Top tips:
Soak the dried fruit in brandy or liqueur if you prefer. I like to soak dried cherries in Amaretto.
I buy a net of large oranges for baking. They keep well in the fridge, so offer great value for money. The sizes can be variable and they don’t always yield the same amount of juice, so you might need 2 or 3 large oranges for this recipe.
You can see in the photo above that my fruit has sunk to the bottom half of my cake. You can often negate this by dusting your fruit in flour before adding it to your mixing bowl if you wish. This cake is still delicious with sunken fruit as the icing and fruit on top of the cake mean there’s still plenty of flavour and texture in every bite.
Aldi used to do a little bottle of crème caramel liqueur & that was gorgeous for soaking dried fruits for baking. It tasted like caramel, vanilla, marshmallow and a hint of cinnamon. Bring that one back, please Aldi!
You can use different dried fruit and nuts if you’d rather. I like a combination of golden sultanas, raisins, dried cranberries and glace cherries.
You can leave out the flaked almonds and swap the ground almonds for some more self raising flour if you need to make this nut free.
I’ve baked this cake with butter and with baking spread – it’s delicious either way! Baking spread is often vegetable based, so perfect for anyone that needs to avoid dairy. Do always check the packaging to be certain though.
Happy baking!
Abi – The Brownie Lady