Here is a North Americanized adaptation of Nigel’s cake, by a Calgarian food writer. https://www.dinnerwithjulie.com/2017/12/05/nigels-fruitcake/
Sacrilege!
My recollection of making Nigel’s cake last year was that it was very much in the tradition of a British “rich fruit cake”, very dark and packed with fruit. The Calgarian version is much lighter and doesnt seem to have as much fruit. Christmas cake, Jim, but not as we know it.
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As far as I know, it was one of Nigel’s recipes , she just adds a little salt and uses the Imperial measurements.
Here is his from this year https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/nov/22/nigel-slater-christmas-cake-recipe
I used his recipe as a guide, from the Guardian, in terms of butter : sugar : flour, and lots of fruit.
I don’t have 2 types of brown sugar so I used what I have. I crossed his recipe with the King Arthur recipe. I also baked it in muffin tins, roughly 70 minutes at 300 degrees F until they registered 205-210 F on my thermapen.
What I made was very loosely based on several recipes- I made my cake with fresh pineapple, Greek spoon sweet quince, Greek spoon sweet sour cherry, sultanas, dried apricots , prunes, Thomson raisins that had soaked in Kraken rum for 3 days, added toasted pecans and German mixed spice for stollen. So yes, this is a sacrilegeous adaptation. I tried one- very tasty.
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50 years ago a young bride gifted us this fruit cake, which is the fruit cake of my life. A Southern white fruit cake, rich but surprisingly/seemingly light, bright flavors, full of cherries, pineapple and nuts. Since she was from Georgia, of course she chose pecans. Enjoy!
I begged the recipe which she wrote out for me:
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Thanks for sharing your well loved recipe!
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I love recipes like this!!! I wonder if you could make muffins like this?
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Sorry for the provocative post, but isn’t it too late to start thinking about making fruit cake where there is alcohol involved? One of my (late) sisters used to make Christmas cake, and every year around September she used to macerate dried fruit in rum and brandy, topping it up with more booze every month. To take it even further, Michel Roux (the father) states in one of his books that year (or more) old Christmas pudding (same ingredients as cake) is wonderful!
Amusing incident: my sister’s son-in-law, a teetotaler, once over-indulged in her cake, and was surprised when he fell asleep! Unfortunately her recipe is lost.
It’s not too late.
They might turn out better or different if the fruit is soaked for months, but they still are quite good if the fruit is only soaked overnight, in my experience.
yup - I soak the fruit in booze overnight - it does two things:
1 - adds a flavor to the fruit
2 - dissolves the sugar holding all the candied bits in one gigantic lump…
much easier to mix in the candied fruits when they’ve been enjoying a nice brandy for a while . . .
I also make the fruitcakes early - typically in October. they last to ~Easter before they are gone-by-eating. the only issue with ‘early’ is finding all the candied fruits - seems the supermarket people think everyone bakes their fruitcakes the week before Christmas…
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I only soaked my fruits for over a month once, when I made a Black Cake. I posted in this thread a few years after it started.
Last minute Xmas cake
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Thank you!
I’ve had apricots and chefdies soaking in rum in the fridge for a few weeks. I need to buy some more rum before I proceed.
I’m going to use the 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp cardamom from this recipe in the fruitcake I make today.
Cherries.
Anyone else have an intrusive and incorrect autocorrect?
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I have it, and it’s been turned off since I got it . . .
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