Dark Christmas Cake

This is a beautiful dark cake, but because it's boiled, you don't need to mature it for a month. It will improve with maturing, but can be eaten the same day, and still be delicious.

Take a large pan, and melt together:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup brandy, rum or extra water
Juice of one orange
Rind of the orange, plus rind of a lemon, finely grated
170g butter or coconut oil
Up to 1 cup shakkar or other unrefined sugar (optional)
2 tsp mixed spice & 1 tsp ginger ( or other spices of your choice)

Finely chop:
900g-1kg dried fruit. Use a packet mix, or choose your own mix, e.g. 250g raisins, 250g sultanas, 150g prunes, 150g fig, 100g dates, 100g cherries.

Add to the pan and simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring often, till the fruit has soaked up all the liquid (though some of the oil may not soak up, esp if using coconut oil). Leave to stand for 30 minutes, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

The full recipe fills a 20x20cm square tin, or make a half-mix and bake in a loaf tin. Line tin with a double layer of brown paper, which comes to about double the height of the tin. Then line with a double layer of baking paper.

Sift together in a large bowl, and mix well:
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 tsp pectin, gar gum or xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda

Beat up 3 large or 4 small eggs.

When the fruit mix has cooled to lukewarm, stir through the beaten egg. Then stir through the dry ingredients. The mixture should be a thick batter and quite hard to stir. If it's too runny, add a little more coconut flour. Spoon the mixture into the pan, and bake at 150°C for 105-120 minutes for the full recipe, or 90-105 minutes for the half recipe. Use the sual skewer test, or listen - when it stops sizzling, it's ready.

(Optional: before cooling, pierce small holes in the top of the cake with a skewer, then carefully pour 2 tbsp brandy over the top).

Cool completely before removing from tin. Wrap in some baking or greaseproof paper, then in a tea-towel and store in the bottom of the fridge.






This recipe is adopted from Bruce Fife's recipe http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GFCFNN/message/19333, and Chien Thang Ltd, 2009