Sis phoned a couple of days before Christmas and while chitter chatting she mentioned this dessert she had seen a recipe for, no idea where she saw it but it was basically Christmas Cake, cut into slabs and lain on the bottom of a shallow cake pan, then topped with slightly softened ice-cream, re-frozen and then sliced into squares and served with either cream or custard, or perhaps even brandy custard. Sounded yum, so yum that it stuck in the brain.
Fast forward to day before Christmas Eve, and it dawned on me that although everything was under control for the Big B.B.Q.Brecky on the Deck, including Maple Glazed Bacon with the Sourdough Ricotta-Tomato-Mushroom Bruschetta (now that is definitely going to be repeated and featured here) The Luncheon Ham had been glazed, using the ever fav Macadamia Honey Glaze and all the salads were ready to roll, but....there was no Chrissy Cake....oops!!, but not too worry too much because it all came together easily a little later on, sort of like someone was looking out for us all.
While we were visiting our fav deli, a 'new to town' deli and deserving lots of support, I spotted some lovely
imported glazed fruits - my oh my - we haven't had those available in our neck of the woods for more years than I care to remember, it was far too late to even think of the usual Christmas cake made with those lovelies so I went for the easy way out, the old fruit cake that the entire family enjoys, and you probably have a recipe for as well.
I snaffled a nicely moist bag of mixed fruits, including a few red cherries, grabbed a can of green glace cherries from France and added 2 of the aforementioned succulent glazed figs and baby pears that I chopped and added to the other fruits.
Mixed up the cake, and as usual, there was a fair bit of mix left over, now I usually pop the left over mix into a tiny individual pan to use as a gift, but this time I popped the leftover, and to be truthful, a big spoonful extra of mix into a small (7") square sandwich pan, baked it with the big cake for about 20 mins and when it was cooled I popped it back in the pan, squished some ice-cream over the top and re-froze it. I also made up a sugar syrup using 1 C sugar and 1 C water, boiled it until it was a light syrup, added a frozen pack of raspberries and reduced down to a nicely thickened sauce to serve with the dessert.
I kid you not - it was a hit - truly a hit. The pic above is the last 1"ish square saved because it was mentioned that this recipe should go in our family recipe book under "Easy Christmas".
In case you don't have the recipe for this ever so easy and variable cake, I will give you the basics.
1 kg of mixed fruit
2 cups of fluid
2 cups Self Raising Flour or Plain....doesn't seem to make a big difference.
Soak the fruits in the fluid for at least a few hours, recipe recommends overnight, then add the flour, stir together and bake in a low 160 deg oven for 80mins to 90mins.
now for the variations:-
for the mixed fruit I always pop in at least 100g of glace cherries, I also have been know - when a little shy of mixed fruit to pop in some dried prunes, chopped up a bit of course
for the fluid, you can use
one heaped tablespoon of cocoa dissolved in hot water,
or some instant coffee granules also dissolved in hot water
or fruit juice
or tea - even some of the fruitier teas such as those sold by T2
or half cheap Marsala wine and water - that one was with the dates......desperate for a cake and no time to shop...(Yummy cake actually - surprisingly)
The self raising flour sometimes seems to make a slightly lighter cake but it all seems to depend on the type of fruit........or perhaps the vagaries of the day.
Now we have
the secret:::
I have
seen this recipe maligned on the net as being too stodgy, well the secret seems to be to cook it low and slow, with lots of paper and or foil surrounding it. I line the cake tin (a 6" square deep tin) with 2 layers of al-foil and 2 layers of silicone paper coming up well above the rim of the pan
I also have a piece of foil loosely cover the cake for the first 40 mins. of cooking time in a fan forced oven of only 160 deg Celsius, place the cake low in the oven, not the bottom but not the middle if you have a choice.
After 40 mins, remove the foil - the cake will look uncooked and, well, not happy, ignore it, don't panic, leave it in the oven for another 10 to 15 mins and then check with a straw, bamboo skewer, cake skewer, whatever, the idea is to make sure the center of the cake is cooked and the straw comes out clean, if in doubt leave it another 5 mins. This is a very moist cake and can take a little extra time in the oven without drying out, whereas under cooking it....well then you are back to the complaints about stodge!
Now the things I would change next time for this dessert are - I would make my own ice-cream, using Aunty Barbs ice cream recipe, and pour it over the cake to freeze. Yes, I would make brandy custard to serve with it, barely warm brandy custard one side and raspberry sauce the other......pretty close to Heaven for a quickie!!
