Big Cakes: Tropical Fruit Cake

Name: Big Cakes: Tropical Fruit Cake
Yield: Makes 25 slices
Ingredients: 100 g pecan nuts; 1 tbsp ground ginger; 150 g sultanas; 18 pecans; 150 g ready-to-eat dried apricots, chopped; 1 tsp ground mixed spice; 150 g currants; 150 g dates, chopped; 12 dark glacé cherries; 24 shelled unsalted pistachios; 125 g dark glacé cherries; 150 g self-raising flour; 200 g glacé ginger, chopped; 295 g unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the tin; 150 g ground almonds; 100 g shelled unsalted pistachios; finely grated zest and juice of 2 limes; 5 eggs, lightly beaten; 1 tsp salt; 120 ml dark rum (plus a couple of tbsp more to feed the cake); 150 g dark muscovado sugar; 2 tbsp black treacle

Preparation info

Makes
25 slices

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Bake and Decorate

By Fiona Cairns

Published 2011

About

This gingery, rum-laced cake is a twist on the classic fruit cake. When I was dreaming this up, I thought of all the flavours of exotic sun-soaked holidays and put those in instead of the more usual fruits and nuts. You’ll need to start this cake the day before to let the fruits soak up the rum.

Ingredients

125 g dark glacé cherries
150 g ready-to-eat dried apricots, chopped
150

Cake
Vegetarian
Baking

Method

The day before, rinse the cherries for the cake, then dry on kitchen towel and chop. Place the apricots, dates, ginger, sultanas, currants and cherries in a large bowl and pour over the rum, lime zest and juice. Give it all a good stir, cover with clingfilm and leave overnight.

Next day, preheat the oven to