Monday 12 October 2015

weekend :: Whisky, date and walnut cake





Autumn...mmm...

Whisky, date and walnut cake

This is a moist fruit cake that contains dried vine fruits and cherries as well as fudgy chewy medjool dates and has a topping of crunchy walnuts. It's flavoured with treacly muscovado sugar and a splash of whisky or you could use your favourite liqueur.

Ingredients:
  • Nineteen ounces of dried fruit, raisins, sultanas, candid peel etc including medjool dates (with the stones removed and chopped into pieces about 1cm cubed)and undyed glace cherries.
  • Ten ounces of sifted Self Raising flour
  • Five ounces of Muscovado or golden caster sugar or a mixture of both
  • Eight ounces of butter or alternative
  • A little natural vanilla extract
  • A little malt whisky
  • Walnuts to decorate the top of the cake
  • Eight fluid ounces of water
  • Two large eggs, beaten well
  • One level tsp of mixed spice
  • One level tsp of baking powder
  • A little apricot jam to glaze

You will need a heavy bottomed saucepan and a deep eight inch baking pan lined with a double of layer of baking parchment. You can see how to do this here.


Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 150c/300f.
  2. Prepare the baking pan by greasing and lining and then put to one side.
  3. Place the butter or alternative into the saucepan and melt.
  4. Add all the other fruits, water, spices, vanilla extract, alcohol if using and sugar. Cover and simmer for twenty minutes until the fruits have all plumped up and the sugar has dissolved. 
  5. Take off the heat and allow to cool. You may speed this up by filling the sink with cold water and standing the pan in it.
  6. Once cooled down (not cold or the butter will begin to harden)remove from the sink and add the eggs and flour and mix well.
  7. Carefully spoon the mixture into the lined cake pan. Arrange walnuts on the top and then glaze with a little apricot jam. If it's a thick jam thin with a little warm water. Place on a baking tray and cook in the centre of the oven for an hour. Remove the baking parchment and then cook for a further fifteen minutes until a lovely golden brown colour. Test with a skewer to ensure that it's cooked in the middle. 
  8. Leave to cool in the tin for five or ten minutes. Carefully remove from the tin and place on a rack to cool further. 
This cake keeps really well in an air tight container. I think that it improves with age as the flavours mature. 

Have a cool week...
debx





17 comments:

  1. just got the last of my chocolate chip cookies out of the oven....and wishing it was a whiskey cake I was pulling out instead!!! This sounds soooooo yummy!

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  2. he he...oh and I'm wishing for chocolate chip cookies now...Shame we can't swap some...
    dx

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  3. Your cake sound like just the thing for a cozy evening Debbie! If it ever cools off here, I'm definitely going to give it a try. Love, love, love your home. All those beams make me a tad bit envious. Thank you for sharing them, at least I get to see 'em. American house just don't have that kind of history.

    Hugs
    Jane

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    Replies
    1. It's very yummy Jane and so easy to make, no creaming. The butter just melts when it's steeped with all the lovely fruit. Thank you for the lovely comments about our home. I feel the same about yours thanks for letting us peep inside. It looks so cosy and inviting.
      Have a great rest of the week,
      debx

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  4. I make just about the same recipe, except I use pecans in place of the walnuts., a cake my Mike love and waits for each year.

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    1. Ooh pecan nuts. I must try that next time, I love them but don't often use them. I bet you have pecan tree in your garden.
      Take care,
      debx

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  5. You are the only person I know that can make a plastic bucket in the garden look stylish!!! Lovely blog as ever jux

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jules, good to hear from you. Hope all are well. He he...I had to look back for the plastic bucket...Thank you...
      dx

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  6. hello debbie,
    beautiful photos!!!! oh your cake sounds very good to me.thanks for the recipe!!!
    have a wonderful week,
    bear hugs,regina

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    Replies
    1. Hi Regina. Thank you. It's nice and easy to make and one that you can change according to what you have in your pantry. It's good to hear from you.
      Hope you have a good one too.
      debx

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  7. your greenery still looks like summer to me but I bet the weather will change it. I've never heard of that kind of cake, but it sounds good.

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    1. It's weird Karen because the Virginia creeper has turned red and half the leaves fallen off, there are lots of autumn berries and tons of seed heads and yet the honeysuckle is still flowering, the sweet peas although looking a bit disheveled close up keep flowering, the cowslip produced another little yellow spring looking flower, the herbs are still mostly fresh and green and lots of other things seem to have had a new flourish of growth. It seems that I have a happy garden. (Please excuse the much too long sentence) The cake is a kind of rich fruit cake a bit like Christmas cake. Very more-ish...
      Happy days,
      debx

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  8. Beautiful pics - and that cake! Your garden looks amazing, mine is just beginning to bloom again after much neglect. I must get out in it...

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    1. Hi Lucy, Thanks. It's very more-ish and best of all it's such an easy one to make. The garden soon get overgrown doesn't it...Just look away for a couple of weeks and it's a mini jungle. Hope you get some time to potter there.
      debx

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  9. Yum!!!! My grandmother used to make her fruit cakes for Christmas in November. She always said they had to have that month to develop their flavor. Thanks for sharing your recipe....it's definitely going into my recipe box.

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    1. This has to be one of my favourite recipes Emily. I try to make a similar one for Christmas with time for it to mature like your grandmother. The problem when I make it too far in advance is that it gets eaten and I have to make another! Thankfully it's easy to do. I think I'll have to find a good hiding place for the next one.
      Happy days,
      debx

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  10. Yum!!!! My grandmother used to make her fruit cakes for Christmas in November. She always said they had to have that month to develop their flavor. Thanks for sharing your recipe....it's definitely going into my recipe box.

    ReplyDelete