{ chocolate fruitcake }

Fruitcake is not usually my favorite but I still want to make one every Christmas. I have been testing and combining different recipes over the years, and this year, I'm especially pleased with the result. In addition to chocolate fruitcake, you could as easily call this recipe boiled cake. The trick of the flavorful and fragrant cake is that the batter is all prepared in a pot and boiled gently before baking it in the oven.

You can choose your own favorite combination of dried fruit. My mixture was dried apricots, raisins, dates and cherries. Cocoa powder gives the cake an incredibly smooth chocolaty flavor. For a finishing touch, the cake gets a delicate layer of powdered sugar on top. I used a homemade paper snowflakes as a stencil to make the fruitcake look as Christmasy as it tastes like.

Ingredients (16 pieces)

- 3 cups (7 dl) dried fruit
- 1 cup (2 1/2 dl) brown sugar
- 4 1/2 ounces (125 g) butter
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- generous pinch of nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cup (3 1/2 dl) cold water
- 1/2 cup (1 1/4 dl) freshly squeezed orange juice
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups (5 dl) flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- powdered sugar for dusting

Roughly chop the dried fruit. Combine dried fruit, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, cold water and orange juice in a large pot. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat a bit and simmer gently for 25 minutes.

Remove from heat and mix in baking soda. Let it bubble and cool for 10 minutes stirring a few times. Add in eggs one at a time and mix. Combine flour, baking powder and cocoa powder and stir in the batter. Scoop the batter into a greased cake pan (around 11 inch, 28 cm) and smooth out the top. Bake at 320 F (160 C) for over an hour until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top has browned beautifully. Allow to cool and remove from the pan.

Cut a snowflake stencil from paper, and place it on top of the cake. Dust the cake with powdered sugar and remove the stencil.

 

Comments

[Fragolina]

I'm not also a fan of fruitcake but I would like to bake one this year, I usualy eat it at someone's place but never tried it at home. I'm gonna bake other sweets so still not sure if i'll do it. Yours look great, so christmasy.... :)

[Cristina]

I'm not a huge fan of fruitcakes other, but yours looks yummy...and beautiful! Love the snowflake decoration, simple and elegant.

[Kimberley]

Such a fantastic idea with the stencil! I think I am maxed out on sweets-making for this season but could see the stencil making a chocolate cake look incredibly lovely.

[veggietestkitchen]

I'm also not a fan of fruitcake. I like to replace the fruit with chocolate chips and nuts =)

I love this stencil design. That is absolutely genius against the backdrop of a dark cake. I got so excited when I saw that picture. Made my day. Thanks ;)

[Dana]

I NEED to remember to stencil the next time I make a cake like this one. It is so beautiful! Another not-fruitcake fan here, but love how gorgeous it looks.

[Sally]

I love the stencil. Have a Merry Christmas Tina and I look forward to reading your lovely blog in the New Year.

[air jordan 23]

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