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–+ servings

Fruit and Nuts Cake

Dessert, Desserts
A proper French loaf cake packed with rum-soaked dried fruits and toasted nuts, with a golden crust and a dense, moist crumb that gets better every day. Once cooled, it keeps for several weeks in a tin box. That is, if you can stop eating it long enough to find out.
Fruit and Nuts Cake Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 50 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 40 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients 

For the fruit and nut mixture
  • 50 gr raisins
  • 50 gr dates
  • 50 gr dried figs
  • 50 gr dried apricots
  • 50 gr almonds
  • 50 gr hazelnuts
  • 50 gr walnuts
  • 60 ml dark rum or substitute warm tea if you prefer no alcohol
For the cake

Equipment

Instructions

1. Soak the fruits

  1. Put the dried fruits in a small saucepan with the rum. Warm gently over low heat until the fruit swells and absorbs the rum.

2. Cream the butter and sugar

  1. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with the sugar until pale and well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition.

3. Add the fruits

  1. Stir the soaked fruits into the batter along with 3 to 4 tablespoons of the macerating liquid. Mix well.

4. Add the flour

  1. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then fold into the batter. Add just enough flour so that the fruits cling to the spoon rather than sinking to the bottom. The batter should be thick but not heavy. Do not add too much flour.

5. Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180°C fan. Line the loaf pan with one or two layers of baking parchment. Pour in the batter and place in the oven.
    After 20 minutes, the cake will have risen. At this point, reduce the temperature to 160°C / 140°C fan and continue baking for 1 hour 30 minutes, checking the colour from time to time. The cake is done when a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

6. Cool and store

  1. Leave to cool completely in the tin before turning out. Once cooled, wrap in baking parchment and store in a tin box. It keeps for several weeks and genuinely improves with time.

Notes

  • The fruit mixture is entirely up to you. Raisins alone work well. A mix of raisins, figs, dates, and apricots gives more complexity. Use whatever you have and you like.
  • If you prefer not to use rum, warm tea works just as well for soaking the fruit.
  • Flour tip: The batter needs to be thick enough to suspend the fruit. If everything sinks to the bottom, add a little more flour and fold again.
  • The two-temperature baking is the key to the texture. The initial high heat gives the cake its rise and crust. The lower temperature cooks it through slowly without drying it out.
  • This cake is excellent sliced and eaten as it is, but also very good with a little salted butter on each slice.