Celebration Fruit Cake

Iced fruit cakes are great for celebrations such as Christmas, weddings and baptisms. This cake uses Sweet Mincemeat (the recipe is on our website) and is full of fruity flavour. If you can soak the dried fruit overnight it will be plump and juicy – giving you an even moister, richer cake.

Ingredients

150g mixed dried fruit
1 small orange
1 small lemon
1 x 15ml spoon vegetable oil (for greasing the tin)
1 large carrot
125g unsaturated fat spread at room temperature
100g soft brown sugar
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour
2 x 5ml spoons baking powder
375g homemade mincemeat (see our Sweet Mincemeat recipe on our website)
2 x 15ml spoons apricot jam
500g packet natural marzipan
500g packet fondant icing

Equipment

Weighing scales
Small bowl x 2
Grater
Chopping board
Sharp knife
Juice squeezer
Mixing spoon
Clean tea towel
13cm cake tin with deep sides
Baking parchment
Pencil
Scissors
Pastry brush
Measuring spoons
Vegetable peeler
Wooden spoon
Large mixing bowl
Fork
Sieve
Spatula
Oven gloves
Skewer
Kitchen foil
Wire rack
Microwave or small saucepan
Rolling pin
Ribbon

Instructions

1. Put the dried fruit into a small bowl.
2. Wash the orange and lemon then grate the zest from them both and add to the dried fruit.
3. Carefully cut the orange and lemon in half and squeeze the juice. Stir the juice into the dried fruit.
4. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave to soak for up to 24 hours, but at least for 30 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
5. Now double line your cake tin. This will protect the cake when it is cooking and help it to come out of the tin easily. Fold a piece of baking parchmentin half and sit your cake tin on top. Draw around the cake tin then cut out the two circles you have drawn. Cut 2 long rectangles of baking parchmen  to fit around the sides of the tin (the width of the paper should be the same as the depth of the tin). Wrap the long pieces of baking parchment around the inside of the tin and put the circles into the bottom.
6. Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan or gas mark 3.
7. Wash the carrot, peel and trim the ends off before carefully grating it. Weigh 75g grated carrot and put to one side.
8. Use a wooden spoon to cream the spread and sugar together in the mixing bowl.
9. Break the eggs into a small bowl, and beat with a fork. Stir into the creamed spread and sugar.
10. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the bowl with the eggs, spread and sugar. Carefully fold in.
11. Add the mincemeat, grated carrot and soaked fruit including all the liquid. Stir well (some people like to make a wish when they do this).
12. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, spreading it out evenly with a spatula, and put into the oven for 1¾-2 hours. To check if it is ready, push a skewer into the middle. If it comes out clean, then the cake is ready. If it is sticky, it needs a little longer. If the cake is brown on top but not cooked in the middle, cover with foil and turn the oven down to 160°C/140°C fan or gas mark 2.
13. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool in the tin for 30 minutes. Then carefully remove from the tin, peel off the baking parchment and leave on a wire rack until completely cold.
14. Gently heat the apricot jam in a small dish in the microwave (20 seconds) or in a small saucepan until it is warm. Using the pastry brush, brush the sides and top of the cake with half of the apricot jam.
15. Knead your marzipan a little until it is soft enough to roll. Tear 2 large sheets of baking parchment and put the marzipan between them. Use the rolling pin to roll out the marzipan between the sheets of paper until it is large enough to cover the whole cake.
16. Gently peel off 1 sheet of paper and carefully lift the marzipan onto the cake (marzipan side facedown). Peel off the top layer of paper, smooth the marzipan down (especially around the sides) and trim around the bottom, so that it looks neat.
17. Brush on another layer of apricot jam and then roll out the fondant in exactly the same way as the marzipan. Smooth over the cake and prick any air bubbles with a small pin.
18. Wrap a pretty ribbon around the bottom of the cake and it is ready to serve.

Skills used include:
Weighing, measuring, peeling, chopping, grating, squeezing, sifting, creaming/beating, folding, baking and serving.

Top Tips

• Rolling out the icing between sheets of baking parchment is easier and less sticky. If you roll it without baking parchment, dust it with icing sugar (not flour). Then roll the icing back over the rolling pin to lift it onto the cake.

Something to try next time

• Using a star-shaped cutter, carefully cut stars out of the fondant; without cutting through to the marzipan. Fill your star-shaped holes with silver sugar balls.
• Instead of marzipan and icing, glaze the cake with apricot jam (see step 14) and arrange whole nuts (like walnuts, pecans and almonds) and glacé cherries closely together on the top, then brush with more jam.

Prepare now, eat later

• Weigh all of the ingredients in advance and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
• Soak the dried fruit in the orange and lemon juice up to 24 hours in advance.
• This cake can be decorated later. Just wrap it tightly in cling-film or foil once it is cold and store somewhere cool for up to a week. Or to freeze, wrap it well in greaseproof paper and then seal in foil or a zip seal bag and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
• Once iced, the cake will keep in a cool dry place (not the fridge) for up to 1 month. The marzipan and icing will protect it as long as it hasn’t been cut. Ideally, store it in an airtight cake tin.