Monday, December 8, 2014

TBB: English Dried Fruit Cake

I love fruitcakes! I adore Rose's fruit cake recipe in HCB and bake them every Christmas without fail..and I will bake enough that will last till Chinese New Year. :D

This is equally amazing! I love the fresh apple crunchy texture...


I used a mixture of dried apricot, mango, pineapple and papaya.  I used more local dried fruits because they are cheaper.. LOL!   The combination worked extremely well with the apples. 

Did you notice the zester? It's Rose's ZestN'est Zester!  It's so easy to use and I love how neat it is, i.e., all the zest collected together. And it's very ergonomic designed..I can hold it easily and zest the entire orange/lemon easily! One of my kitchen must have.  :)   



Cooking the sugar and butter first. 


Then add the chopped up apples..I used Pink Lady apples.  I think this is my first time trying out Pink Lady apples. Normally I buy Fuji apples. (Actually I've never really bother what the names of the apples are as long as they are crispy and hard! I hate soft, powdery apples...they are only for babies when you need to scrape the apples with spoon to feed them...hmmm..ok...this statement applies till one day I get old and no longer can eat crunchy apples..lol!)  

Anyway, my point is, next time I'll use Pink Lady apples for baking, I like how it is firm and has a slight tartness to it..yet not as tart as Green apples.  


So easy to make! And add the flour & pecan nuts into the apple mixture and it's all done! 

I've never liked pecan nuts because I thought they tasted rancid. But I was totally WRONG!  What I had been buying are lousy pecans..or spoilt ones..maybe due to the heat! Just recently I purchased a pack of organic Pecan nuts that cos $11+ per 150g (...so expensive!!)...but the nuts were so GOOD and tasted Fresh!..No rancid taste at all!  



And this cake is a rum absorber. I doubled up the rum and still the cake didn't taste too rummy.  
I think can add more rum next time when I make it again.  When I was drowning my cake with rum, I remembered Rose said in her book that her dad likes to pour a lot of rum onto the cake too! 




This is amazing cake!! It's a really refreshing take on traditional fruit cake. I love the fresh apple texture - which the nuts and dried fruits compliment the apple flavor and the rum takes it one notch further.   SOO GOOD!  We all couldn't get enough of it.  I gave half of the cake to a friend and he also said it was moist, great flavor and not too sweet

This phrase "Not too sweet" is a huge compliment here!  Means your dessert is good and has right sweetness level!  Often you'll get to hear these comments:- "not too sweet" as compliment and "too sweet" as a disapproval..  

We, Singaporeans known for being health conscious..... examples:-

1)  food coloring, is a no-no (rainbow cakes..you'll get comments like "eww..so much artificial food colouring will get cancer or not?" ... ) 
2)  too sweet - is also a no-no (you'll get comments like "too sweet will get diabetes"..and for children.."bad for teeth"...), 
3) savoury food too salty..(you'll get comments like "so salty, later get high blood pressure"...) 
4) too buttery/too many eggs - you might get comments like "so rich, will get high cholesterol"...)    LOL!

So now, when I give desserts away, I have to be sure that I give to my friends who really like & enjoy desserts,  that way, I don't put unnecessary pressure on those who doesn't want dessert.....!  :)







13 comments:

Unknown on December 8, 2014 at 3:29 PM said...

Sounds like this cake really got the Singaporean stamp of approval! I had the same problem with pecans tasting rancid. I'm going to use walnuts for my second try.

Nicola on December 8, 2014 at 8:57 PM said...

So good! Love the idea of using more tropical fruits - will try that this weekend.

And I love that the Singaporean compliment is a negative... catastrophe at every turn!

Unknown on December 9, 2014 at 12:17 AM said...

Love your tropical dried fruits, think local! I also like the big chunks of nuts, great texture. I'm glad your pricey pecans were good. :-)

Unknown on December 9, 2014 at 12:19 AM said...

Faithy, the previous comment is from Lois not Ed. His google account has hijacked my iPad!

Michele at The Artful Oven on December 9, 2014 at 1:47 AM said...

Faithy, your cake looks great, and I enjoyed your post. Wish I could visit Singapore! A little tropical weather would be welcome right about now! Michele in Durham, North Carolina, USA

Unknown on December 9, 2014 at 8:22 AM said...

I'm loving that you use newspaper as your cake pan strips and butterfly clips to hold them together.. I should do that next time - I also prink my fingers when I use the pin that comes with my cake strips - totally useless.

Did the mango work.. I had a tough time finding dry pears, even the fruit that I found was an undertaking.. since we live in Florida.. al the dry fruit is tropical fruit, pineapple, mango, oranges, etc....

Rosa V. on December 9, 2014 at 9:48 AM said...

hi Faithy, great idea to use a Cake strips and clips around the cake pan , Monica I always do that and I always put paper parchment before I put the batter in your , Faithy the pictures are lovely and your steps are good too.

Mendy on December 9, 2014 at 10:48 AM said...

ב''ה

Your cake looks delicious.

How does the newspaper cake-strip work? Do you soak it in water or some such?

Vicki on December 9, 2014 at 11:53 AM said...

Faithy, you are so funny! I always have a smile reading your posts. I'll remember that spoon and apple trick for my older aged years which are getting here too quickly! I like the selection of dried fruits you used. I'll make a note to try that combination.

Patricia @ ButterYum on December 9, 2014 at 12:47 PM said...

Hi Faithy - Your cake looks lovely. did you wrap your pan with newspaper? Hope you'll stop by and visit my post.

Patricia @ ButterYum
http://www.butteryum.org/roses-alpha-bakers/2014/11/6/tbb-english-dried-fruit-cake

Unknown on December 10, 2014 at 12:06 AM said...

I'm with you, more rum is better!

Jenn on December 10, 2014 at 2:32 AM said...

Faithy, great post. So funny. I like the food rules. We also don't like food coloring, makes it harder to buy things sometimes. And pecans (and walnuts) are so expensive in the US also. But they are so good :).

evil cake lady on December 15, 2014 at 12:09 PM said...

your fruitcake looks super moist! must be all the rum! i love pecans, but yes, if they are rancid they are terrible. i think not too sweet is a compliment too!

 

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