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The British Fruit
Cake is traditionally served during the Christmas season. It is full of
dried fruits
and nuts, laced with alcohol over several weeks, and often covered with
marzipan and royal icing. The problem is that it's both expensive to make and it needs time to age.
Luckily, there is a much simpler version of this cake for the last
minute baker, and I call it an Easy Fruit Cake. You may know it
as a Boiled Fruit
Cake, a War Cake, and/or a Bachelor's Cake. I love a lot of things
about this cake. I love that it still uses all the necessary fruit cake ingredients, like
candied fruits, dried fruits and spices. I love that the batter is so
easy to make and you don't need to pull out your stand mixer. And most
importantly, I love its flavor and that it can be eaten almost right away. This is one cake that is so good
that it begs to be made all year, not just during the Christmas season. This Easy Fruit Cake does not contain
alcohol and yet its' texture is still wonderfully moist. Now, the reason
it's often called a "Boiled" Fruit Cake, is because the brown sugar,
water, butter, spices, and raisins are, in fact, "boiled". Once this
boiled mixture has been left to cool to lukewarm, all that's left is to
fold in the rest of the ingredients. And that's it. Then just pour the
batter into your pan and bake. Now, if possible, do try to resist eating
this cake right away. Although it doesn't need weeks to age, it does
benefit from being stored, at least a day or two.
A few things about this
recipe are worth mentioning. For the dried fruit, you can use raisins (I like to
use a combination of dark and golden), currants, and/or dried cranberries. Spices can also be
adjusted to your taste, adding more or less of each. Finally, if
you are an avid fan of fruit cakes and want to make them year round, it might be a good idea to pick up extra candied
peel during the holiday season as it can be difficult to find
during the rest of the year. |
