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Our favourite Christmas baking recipes, Kitchen to Table, Yamba

Stout, Chocolate and Orange Fruit Cake

This is a delicious cake to bake at Christmas or any time of the year if you enjoy fruit cake. The stout adds a lovely depth of colour and flavour, the chocolate adds richness, and the orange adds a little freshness.
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Ingredients
  

  • 500 g raisins
  • 250 g pitted prunes roughly chopped
  • 250 g pitted dates roughly chopped
  • 125 g currants
  • 125 g sultanas
  • 1 x 440 ml can of stout eg. guinness
  • zest of 1 orange
  • ⅓ cup orange juice
  • 250 g butter softened
  • 1½ cups brown sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • ½ cup self-raising flour
  • 3 tsp ground cinnamon or your favourite spice mix
  • 200 g dark chocolate chopped
  • ¼ cup orange marmalade
  • blanched almonds to garnish (optional)
  • pecans to garnish (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Place the dried fruit in a large bowl and add the stout, orange zest, juice and mix. Cover and allow to soak for a couple of hours. 
  • Preheat the oven to 150C (140C fan-forced) and line a 23cm round cake tin with a couple of layers of brown paper followed by a layer of baking paper.
  • Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until light, and fluffy then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well before adding the next egg.
  • Add the fruit mixture to the creamed mixture and mix to combine.
  • Add the chocolate and marmalade and mix to combine.
  • Sift together the flours and cinnamon, then fold into the fruit mixture until well combined. Spoon mixture into the prepared cake pan and decorate the top with the almonds and/or pecans if using.
  • Bake the cake for 2.5 to 3 hours or until firm to touch, and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Check the cake after the first hour or so, and if it's browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil.
  • When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and place it on a cooling rack and leave it to cool completely in the tin.
  • When cool, remove it from the tin and wrap firmly in cling film or foil and store it in a dark place, such as the pantry, for a couple of weeks or in the fridge where it will keep for several months.

Notes

You could divide the mixture between smaller tins, such as a jumbo muffin tin, or 10 cm round or square cake pans, and gift these to friends and family this festive season. You will need to reduce the cooking time to 1 hour 20 to 1 hour 40 or until firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.