A few years ago, as a new baker, and armed with a cookbook or two; books that were not easy to come by, at least in my African context, I decided to try my hand at baking a simple fruit cake that would be suitable for our tea times, for our guests as well as a celebration once in a while.
I had tasted fruit cake before and I’d loved it. I was looking forward to learning how to bake it.
I looked at a number of recipes, tried them; but as you would expect, coming from Africa, I would find the sugar especially a little too much for my taste buds.
I also like to have my ingredients toned down to reduce on unnecessary calories. Most cakes had a little bit more ingredients than I felt I needed, again coming from my context.
With some idea of what I needed in order to come up with a fruitcake, whose ingredients were toned down, yet maintaining the exquisite taste of a fruitcake, I went to work.
I came up with this recipe a number of years ago. I’ve been tweaking it over the years and finally settled for the one I am sharing now.
I have graciously received feedback from family, friends and those I have baked it for. It has been the kind of very positive feedback that made me share it here. You will enjoy it too.
As I mentioned earlier, I tone down the ingredients of my cakes to reduce on unwanted calories yet maintaining the goodness of the recipe.
The cake is so easy to make. As you will see, the instructions are quite simple and straight forward.
You can have this cake as a tasty delight for your tea times, your guests and or your family to enhance your hospitality.
In this recipe, I have given instructions of how to bake it without an oven on your gas stove or cooker. This should in no way keep you from baking it in the oven. You can expect great results as well! Bake it at 180 degrees Celsius/ 350 Fahrenheit.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup sugar (add just a little more if it’s for a wedding or celebration)
½ teaspoon cinnamon spice
½ teaspoon mixed spice
1 egg – beaten
½ cup salad oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence/ extract
1/2 teaspoon orange oil (or orange zest of one large orange)
1 cup mixed berry juice/ orange juice
¼ cup treacle. You can find my very simple homemade treacle here.
¾ cup raisins dusted with flour (Alternatively, you could soak them overnight or for about 8 hours in black/ strong tea drink- made from 1 cup water & ½ teaspoon tea leaves, sieved. I soak them in as soon as I get the tea off the fire and I’ve sieved it. Drain them out of the tea the next day when they’ve nicely puffed up and use. This way you obviously won’t have to dust them. You can also soak them in the 1 cup juice you’re using instead of the tea.)
1 tablespoon marge/ fat to grease pans and a little flour to dust it
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Begin by sieving and combining all the dry ingredients in a bowl until evenly mixed.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour in the egg, the salad oil, the vanilla, the orange oil, the treacle, and half of the juice.
- Begin to combine the ingredients with your wooden spoon then beat, pouring in the remaining juice a little at a time. Beat to a smooth paste.
- Finally fold in the raisins, combining until they are evenly distributed throughout the butter.
- Select a pan that’s fairly heavy and one in which the butter will be slightly below half the pan to give the cake space to rise when baking.
- Grease the pan evenly on the inside, then use a little flour to dust it.
- Pour the butter into the pan; place the pan on a flat surface and swirl the pan around a little to level the butter out with a slight depression in the middle. Cover the pan with a clean lid.
- Switch on your gas stove/ cooker and place the butter onto the burner. Allow it on high heat for about 20 seconds just to heat up the pan.
- Next, turn the gas knob slowly as though you are switching off the burner and take it to the lowest flame; the kind that if you blew on it, the gas will go off. This is the kind that will bake your fruit cake without an oven. Or else, your cake will burn. It could take two or three trials sometimes because the flame can go off as you try. Don’t give up though, keep at it and get to that flame. The more I’ve done it, the easier I now get to this flame the first time. I sometimes miss it though!
- *Please note that the lowest flame as designed by the manufacturer on most gas cookers or gas stoves is usually still too high to bake your fruit cake without burning it. Ensure you turn the knob as though you are switching off to get to this lowest flame I am describing! In some cookers, the smallest surface burner may suffice when taken to its lowest as the manufacturer designed but be sure to taste this flame to be sure it can bake your cake without burning it.
- Bake on this very low flame for anything between 50 minutes to about 1 hour depending on your gas cooker/ stove or flame.
- Once it’s ready, (when your toothpick/ sharp knife/ tester comes out clear when you insert it into the cake) turn it onto your cooling rack or suitable plate. Your cake is ready!
- In case you want it to brown even further on top, immediately turn it over onto a clean lid. Then turn it again onto another clean lid to ensure the top part of the cake is back up again. Carefully turn the cake back into your pan so that this top part is inverted into the pan you used to bake the cake while still hot.
- Put it back onto the very low fire and bake for 10 minutes. These are enough minutes to brown the top of your cake to a golden brown.
- Turn it out onto your cooling rack or appropriate plate. Allow it to cool. Your cake is ready to enjoy… or frost and enjoy!
- You can find our simple Fruitcake Without Treacle here