I am going to preface this recipe with, this is not a traditional Christmas fruit cake.

That is the exact reason however, that I love this cake.

I have always severely disliked heavy alcohol laden Christmas cakes, and this is my much lighter take on the traditional. This cake uses delicious dried fruit, but the cake is more cake-y than fruit heavy.

This cake is not alcohol free (but could easily be made so), but by using a large quantity of good quality vanilla extract (which contains alcohol) to soak the dried fruit you get an intense vanilla, only slightly alcoholic taste to the cake. All in all a much lighter flavour and texture than a traditional Christmas fruit cake.

I have cooked it in a particularly skinny loaf tin as this creates the perfect serve when cutting slices of the cake (unfortunately the shape of the cake makes it much harder to photograph!). You could use something similar in size, just keep in mind a different shaped tin may change the cooking time for this cake.

I have used making this Christmas cake as a great opportunity to bake with some really great ingredients from some Australian businesses I really love.

Riverland Melange and Sticky Quince Syrup from Singing Magpie Produce

The mixed dried fruit is from Singing Magpie Produce and is called their Riverland Melange. It is a combination of sun dried quince, pears, apricots, peaches, black figs and white figs. While I highly recommend using a dried fruit mix like this, you can of course use any kind of mixed dried fruit for this cake. I also used Singing Magpie Produce’s soon to be released sticky quince syrup. As a lover of quince I bought this as soon as I could, when Sue at Singing Magpie Produce put together a limited run of a ‘Christmas Bakers Box’ containing this syrup, dried citrus and the Riverland Melange. It is delicious in both sweet and savoury recipes, and can be substituted with honey or date syrup.

I am a big fan of the Ballarat business, Grounded Pleasures and use their panela sugar at every opportunity. So this cake was no exception. Light brown or muscovado sugar could be substituted for the panela however. I also used some of their vanilla extract to soak my dried fruit in. This vanilla has a strong flavour, with the PNG sourced vanilla beans being paired with PNG white rum to create the extract. Any good quality vanilla extract can be used. Alcohol free vanilla extracts could also be used, to make this cake alcohol free.

Finally I used the Gewurzhaus St Nicolas Spekulaas spice for this cake, to give it a lovely festive edge. However you could also substitute with 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp mixed spice.

Easy Christmas Fruit Loaf Cake

Ingredients:

260g mixed dried fruit (I used Singing Magpie Produce Riverland Melange)

50ml good quality vanilla extract (I used Grounded Pleasures Vanilla Extract)

75ml boiling water

300g plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1 tsp Spekulaas Spice (I used Gewurzhaus St Nicolas Spekulaas ground spice); alternatively use 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp mixed spice

250g unsalted butter, softened

240g panela sugar (I used Grounded Pleasures Panela), or brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tbsp sticky quince syrup (I used Singing Magpie Produce) or honey

50g mixed nuts such as almonds, pistachios or macadamias

35g (approx.) natural almonds, for decoration

10g blanched pistachios, roughly chopped, for decoration

Method:

Chop the dried fruit, and place into a bowl. Cover with the vanilla extract and boiling water and leave to soak for about half an hour.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and line a 31 x 7.5 x 8cm loaf tin with baking paper.

Combine the flour, baking powder and spice in a medium sized bowl and briefly whisk to combine and remove any lumps.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until well combined and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, ensuring they are well combined after each addition.

Add the sticky quince syrup and the flour mix and mix until combined.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, add the soaked fruit along with any liquid left in the bowl and mix into the batter using a large wooden spoon or a spatula. Then add the nuts.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared loaf tin and arrange the almonds around the outside. Sprinkle over the chopped pistachios, and bake for about 1 hour 15min. Check the cake at around 45min-1hour, and cover with foil if necessary. The cake will be ready when the top is golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 20-30mins, then remove onto a wire rack.

Reference: ‘Piri Piri Starfish - Portugal Found’ by Tessa Kiros (Murdoch Books, 2008), pp.191-2.

I first tried a slice of this cake when a former colleague brought some into to work around Christmas last year. Her Mum, a keen baker and CWA member had made it.The cake was cut thinly, so the glacé fruit and the nuts were really obvious and it was clear why the cake was called a Stained Glass Window Cake! I was hesitant at first to try some as I never like Christmas style fruit cakes, but this one has definitely become an exception.

I asked my friend what the cake was called and she text her Mum to check. Her Mum came back saying it was called a Stained Glass Window Cake (sometimes known as an American Fruit Cake or Bishops Cake). My colleague also told me how in the past her Mum would make the trip to David Jones Food Hall in the city to get all the glacé fruit. I quickly wrote all that down on a post it note and took it home so I would remember all the details.

Stained Glass Window Christmas Fruit Cake

Lighter in colour and flavour than a regular Christmas fruit cake, this style of cake is heavy on glacé fruit rather than alcohol soaked dried fruit, which gives the cake a distinctly different flavour and look.

Since the flavour of the alcohols used in fruit cakes is what I really don’t like, I was pleased when I tasted the cake that alcohol wasn’t evident at all. Since having looked at recipes for this type of cake, most call for about 1tbsp of some kind of alcohol (significantly less than a traditional fruit cake!), and some recipes suggested orange juice could be used as a substitute.

Another reason I love this cake is because I have been a fan of glacé fruit for a long time, having grown up eating glacé cherries a lot as a child. My Grandma used them to decorate her Christmas shortbread, and I would always sneak a couple from the open packet in the fridge (much to Grandma’s dismay I think!).

I set about finding my glacé fruit for this cake the same as my colleague’s Mum used to. I went to the David Jones Food Hall after work and searched for some. I finally found a very small selection in the deli area where the cheeses etc are sold. There were red glacé cherries and pineapple sold by weight and a packet of mixed glacé fruit. I got the mixed packet, and a few extra slices of pineapple. I have a feeling the selection may have been a bit better in the past when my colleague’s Mum used to go!

I then bought some more at The Source Bulk Foods, who have a good selection of glacé fruits, however not a large quantity of each (not great if you are making something big, but good for this recipe as you only need a few bits of each fruit). I also went to Harris Farm Markets who have a great selection of glacé fruits this time of year.

What kind of Christmas fruit cake do you prefer? Or are you a fan of them at all? Let me know in the comments!

Stained Glass Window Christmas Cake (12 of 15).jpg

Stained Glass Window Christmas Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

115g glacé pineapple, roughly chopped

125g glacé apricot and/or peach, roughly chopped

250g glacé pear and/or fig, roughly chopped

110g whole red and green glacé cherries

110g roughly chopped pitted dates and/or dried quince (I used dried quince from Singing Magpie Produce)

75g macadamias

85g whole blanched almonds

85g brazil nuts

110g dark brown sugar

2 eggs

zest of one lemon

1tbsp fresh lemon juice

100g butter, melted and cooled

1tsp cinnamon

50g plain flour

35g self-raising flour

Ingredients for the Topping:

75g mixed glacé fruit, roughly chopped (I used pineapple, peach & pear)

55g whole red glacé cherries

55g whole green glacé cherries

40g brazil nuts

35g macadamias

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees Celsius/130 degrees Celsius fan-forced. Grease and line a 20cm round ring pan allowing the baking paper to extend a few centimetres above the tin (preferably one with a flat base, not a bundt tin).

Mix together the glacé fruit and the nuts in a large bowl.

In a small bowl whisk together the flours and the cinnamon.

Then in a small/medium bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar with electric beaters (or in a stand mixer) until well combined. Add the lemon juice, melted butter and flour mixture and beat until just combined.

Gently stir the egg mixture into the fruit and nuts. Spoon into the prepared pan, pressing the mixture into the tin. Press down so the top is level. Then press in all the topping ingredients into the top of the cake, ensuring they aren’t sitting loose.

Loosely cover the cake with foil, and bake for 1 hour.

After the hour, remove the foil, and bake for a further 45 minutes. If using a fan forced oven and the cake is not cooked through after 45 minutes, turn the temperature up to 150 degrees Celsius and continue to cook for a further 15 minutes.

Once the cake is done, remove from the oven and allow to sit in the tin for 10 minutes before carefully removing from the tin and allowing to cool on a wire rack. Keep in mind the top side of the cake when it is in the tin, will remain the top side of the cake once removed from the tin.

The cake slices best when completely cooled (even better when it comes straight from the fridge). Store in the fridge (wrapped in plastic wrap inside an airtight container) if conditions are humid.

Reference: ‘Christmas Food & Craft’ The Australia Women’s Weekly (ACP Books, 2006), p. 95.

Easy Christmas Fruit Loaf Cake

Stained Glass Window Christmas Fruit Cake

Kulinary Adventures of Kath

Food Photography, Recipes & Baking