Christmas is a time of the year, where Christmas fruit cake is a must.

Myself I am not a lover of fruit cake. I can go from starving to full as soon as I hear fruit cake. My parents are huge lovers of fruit cake anytime of the year.

Last year’s Christmas fruit cake was a disaster. Everyone in the house agreed, since we were having an assortment of puddings for dessert and no cake was needed, and then the bombshell dropped. Christmas would be on a fasting day for my mother, which wasn’t surprising at all. I mean the women fasts 5 out of 7 days.

I decided to stay up Christmas Eve and bake the cake, without planning or preparation. I had half the spice ingredients, I mean I didn’t even have brown sugar, I had to use white sugar. The cake was burnt on the top and the middle was still runny raw, that put me off making a fruit cake again, until this year.

I made sure I had extra ingredients on hand and I was planned and ready a week before Christmas. I bake the cake 3 days before Christmas, which gave me enough time to try it again, if the cake did not go according to plan. Thank my lucky Christmas stars it went A Okay.

Ingredients:

1. 1 x cup light brown caramel sugar.
2. 1 x cup raisons.
3. 1 x cup saltanas.
4. 1 x cup cranberries.
5. 1 x cup mixed fruit cake mix.
6. 2 x ounces chopped dates.
7. 1 x tbsp. lemon juice.
8. 1 x zest of an orange.
9. 1 1/3 x cup boiling water.
10. ½ x pound rama margarine.
11. 2 x tsp bicarbonate of soda.
12. 2 x tsp vanilla essence.
13. 2 x tsp cinnamon powder.
14. 2 x tsp all spice powder.
15. 2 x tsp nutmeg powder.
16. 1 x tsp baking powder.
17. 3 x cups, sifted self-raising powder.
18. 2 x tsp salt.
19. 5 x tbsp. cooking oil.
20. ½ x cup orange juice.
21. 150g x maraschino cherries, halved.
22. 1 x cup glazed red cherries and blanched almonds for decoration.

Method:

• In a pot, bring ingredients 1-10 to the boil. Allow to bubble away for 10 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 30 minutes.
• Add the bicarbonate of soda, and stir till the mixture becomes fizzed.
• Allow the mixture to cool for about 15 minutes.
• Pour into the bowl of your food process with the paddle attachment attached.
• Add ingredients 12 – 21 and beat on low till everything is well combined.
• Pour the mixture into a well greased pan.
• Decorate the top of the cake with the blanched almonds and glazed cherries.

• Pop into a pre-heated oven and bake at 18- degrees for 60-90 minutes, or until the taste tester comes out clean.
• Turn the cake regularly to prevent the cake from not browning evenly. If you find that the cake is browning to quick on the top. Cover the cake with a piece of tin foil.
• Remove from the oven and leave in the pan to cool for 30 minutes, before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

• Once cooled, sprinkle icing sugar over the top and enjoy.