Crumble Top Fruit Cake

Warm Luxurious Pudding

I had never made a fruit cake before, but I had eaten plenty varieties in my life ;)  I made it to celebrate love, life and for someone very special who is a very long way away.  The outcome was a triumph.  It may not be the best fruit cake in the world, but I am really amazed at how far I've come on my cooking journey.  I was very proud of my kitchen performance because I learnt from past mistakes and weighed out every ingredient in advance.  Although the fruit cake is quite simple to make, the balance of flavours must be perfect because it is so rich and dense, but at the same time must be very moist.  To get the full taste of luxury eat the cake warm. More? Then add warm cream, whipped cream, toffee... any cake dressing you can lay your hands on.





Crumble Top Inspiration

Sometimes the best things rise out of the ashes... literally! Student accommodations are cheap for a reason,  many ovens will cause uneven cooking and the temperatures always need to be checked.  I have to switch my cooking ovens depending on what I want to make in case I am unable to use a fan option.  This cake takes a while to cook, so I had a feeling that the top was going to be hardened and slightly darker than the rest of the cake.  I was not worried about the fruit at the top because the fruit (being overly exposed to the heat) obviously would have become a little bitter.  (Therefore it is just the simple task of either layering or altering the design.)
I was not wrong about the top of the cake.  It became quite hard after I let the cake cool, but I made a genius back up plan!  I decided to cut off the top and use the bottom of the cut off part to create a crumbled effect on the top.  I also mixed in a bowl dried fruit, a little sugar, chopped walnuts and cake crumbs to sprinkle over the top.  Not only did this bring more flavour, but it provided another texture.  Go Saffy! Go Saffy! (Does the robot dance.)

This recipe was adapted from The Best Of Sainsbury's Vegetarian Cooking (Reed Consumer Books Limited, 1992)

Ingredients:

175g raisins, 175g sultanas, 175g currants, 250g soft brown sugar, 1tsp ground cinnamon, 1tsp ground ginger, 175g butter (spare for greasing cake tin), 250ml water, 3 eggs (beaten), 125g plain flour (spare for cake tin), 126g self- raising flour, 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda, 50g glazed cherries (chopped), 50g mixed peel, 50g walnuts (chopped).

Method:

1. Sift the plain and self - raising flour into a large mixing bowl with the bicarbonate of soda, mixed peel, cherries and walnuts. 
2.  Stir this until the dried fruit and nuts are covered in the flour.
3. Put the raisins, sultanas, currants, sugar, spices and butter into a saucepan with the water.  Let this simmer for 3 minutes then leave to cool.
4.  When the mixture/ syrup in the saucepan has cooled add the eggs in and mix this up together.
5. Pour what is in the saucepan into the mixing bowl with the other ingredients and mix together.
6.  Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C, Gas Mark 3.
7. Grease a cake tin with spare butter and sprinkle with spare flour.
8. Pour the mixture into the cake tin.
9. Bake for 1 1/2 hours.
10.  Wait for cake to cool slightly and make your crumble top.