The fruit and nut cake is rich, but takes a long time to prepare and is expensive, since the baking time alone is more than three hours in the oven at a low temperature. The slow and long time in the oven prevents the cake from drying out and ensures that the fruit in the cake does not become dry but ripens slowly. A real holiday treat!
If you don’t have time to do the long baking right before the holidays, you can bake the cake faster and freeze it. Then, before bringing it to the table, it will only have to be softened and decorated.
A ginger and honey loaf can be served with yogurt and/or stewed fruit for a holiday brunch or dinner.
For the banana loaf, if you like, you can mix a handful of chopped nuts into the batter.
Ginger and honey loaf
Ingredients:
- 100 g of butter + a little for greasing the mold,
- 100 g of honey,
- 125 g of dark brown sugar,
- 4 tbsp. milk,
- 0.5 tsp. vanilla extract,
- 200 g of flour,
- 2 tsp. baking powder,
- 1 tsp. ground ginger,
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon,
- a pinch of ground nutmeg, cloves, pepper, salt,
- 1 ola
Preparation:
1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Line the baking form with baking paper and grease with butter.
2. Mix soft honey, butter and sugar together in a pot on the stove. Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Remove the pan from the stove.
3. Mix the liquid mass of honey, butter and sugar with milk and vanilla extract. Set aside to cool.
4. Mix flour, baking powder, spices and salt together in a separate bowl.
5. Beat the egg into the cooled butter mixture. The butter mass is gradually mixed with the flour mass until a homogeneous dough is formed.
6. Put the dough in the prepared mold, bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the dough comes out dry.
7. Refrigerate in a hermetically sealed container and store for a couple of days.
A loaf of banana bread
Ingredients:
- 140 g of soft butter + a little for greasing the mold,
- 140 g of sugar,
- 2 large eggs,
- 140 g of flour,
- 2 very ripe bananas,
- 2 dashed tsp. baking powder
Preparation:
1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Line and grease a baking pan with baking paper.
2. Beat the soft butter with sugar until a light, airy mass is formed.
3. Add the eggs one by one to the butter and sugar mixture and beat.
4. Flour is mixed with baking powder and gradually added to the butter and egg mixture. Mix a homogeneous dough.
5. Peel the bananas and mash the pulp with a fork. Fold the banana mass into the dough.
6. Place the dough in the prepared baking dish. Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes. After 30-40 minutes, start checking whether a wooden stick inserted into the dough comes out dry. If it is, then the banana bread is ready – the baking time depends on both the oven and the type of baking dish chosen.
7. Remove from the oven, cool and serve. When serving, you can decorate with banana chips, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Fruit and nut cake
Ingredients:
- 200 g of butter + a little for greasing the mold,
- 200 g light muscovado sugar,
- 3 large eggs,
- 250 g of flour,
- 0.5 tsp. baking powder,
- 600 g of dried fruit (apricots, raisins, cranberries, plums),
- 100 g of dried figs,
- 100 g candied citrus peel,
- 1 large orange (juice and grated peel),
- 1 lemon (just grated rind),
- 100 ml of orange liqueur,
- 100 g of blanched almonds,
- 100 g pistachios,
- 1 tsp each ground Christmas spices, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, knife tip ground nutmeg;
For the glaze:
- 2 large egg whites,
- 2 tsp. lemon juice,
- 500 g of powdered sugar
Preparation:
1. Cut the butter into pieces and put it in a saucepan with sugar.
2. Cut the selected dried fruits, including figs, into smaller pieces, add to the butter and sugar mixture in a saucepan. Also add orange and lemon peel, orange juice and orange liqueur.
3. Stir everything over low heat until the butter and sugar melt.
4. In the meantime, roughly chop the almonds and toast them on a dry pan.
5. Grind half the almonds and half the pistachios in a food processor.
6. Put the pot with the stewed fruits to cool.
7. Heat the oven to 150 degrees. Grease a baking paper and line a 20 cm diameter baking dish with it.
8. Stir eggs and remaining almonds and pistachios into the cooled fruit mass.
9. Sift flour into a separate bowl and mix it with baking powder and spices.
10. Mix the flour in parts into the fruit and butter mass.
11. Fill the dough into the prepared form, smooth the surface and bake for two hours.
12. Then the temperature is reduced to 140 degrees and baked for another 1-1.5 hours. The readiness of the cake is tested by inserting a wooden skewer into it – if it comes out dry, the cake is ready.
13. When the cake is ready, leave it to cool for half an hour in the form, then remove it from the form.
14. In the meantime, prepare the glaze. Egg whites are beaten with lemon juice and powdered sugar. 15. Pour the prepared glaze over the cooled cake and wait until it hardens.
2023-12-09 13:01:06
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