Decadence

I have a couple of food vices.  Okay, I actually have heaps.  But I absolutely love chocolate, dried fruit and coffee.  I am not, however, a huge fan of sweets.  So when I came across this recipe, I unexpectedly fell in love.  This cake is extremely decadent and divine.  Its meant to be a Christmas Cake, but I think you could have it anytime.  The smells while cooking fill your home with an amazingly welcoming scent.   If you are anything like me, scents bring back so many memories for me of those festive occasions throughout the year when my extended family would all gather and our Mum's would all brew something truly amazing.

The original recipe comes from the divine Nigella Lawson.  But I have tinkered with it to suit myself and my taste bud's demands and I think anyone could do the same.

Decadence Chocolate Fruit Cake

Ingredients

1. 350g dried, soft prunes roughly chopped
2. 250g raisins
3. 125g of cranberries or dried blueberries
4. 75g almonds ground
5. 175g unsalted butter softened
6. 175g dark muscovado sugar
7. 175ml honey
8. 125ml coffee liqueur or strong coffee (espresso)
9. 2 oranges, juice and zest only
10. 1 teaspoon mixed spice
11. 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
12. 3 eggs beaten
13. 150g of plain flour
14. 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
15. 1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
16. Vanilla essence
17. 25g Dark chocolate covered coffee beans (for decoration)

Directions

Preheat the over to 300 F or 150 C.

Line the sides and bottom of a 20cm/9cm deep round loose-bottomed cake tin with a layer of baking paper.  Make sure the paper comes up twice the height of the tin as this sucker will rise!  You may need to cut the paper and fiddle around to get it right.

Put the fruit, butter, sugar, honey, coffee liqueur, orange juice and zest, mixed spice and cocoa into a large saucepan.  Heat this mixture up until it reaches a gentle boil, stirring the mixture as the butter melts.  Then let the mixture simmer for ten minutes.  After that, remove the saucepan from the heat and let it stand for 30 minutes to cool a little.

After cooling, add the eggs, flour, ground almonds, baking powder and bicarb.  Mix it all well until everything is combined.  I also pop in a good glug of vanilla essence (homemade of course) and a pinch of salt.

Pour the fruitcake mixture into your lined cake tin.  Transfer it over to the the oven and bake for 1 3/4 - 2 hours or until the cake is firm but has a shiny and sticky look.  Its important to note that if you insert a sharp knife or skewer into the cake, the cake should still be a little uncooked and sticky in the middle!!

Transfer the tin to a cooling rack.  Once its cooled, you can take the cake out of the tin (but not before).

Decorate it how you wish.  I love fresh raspberries or chocolate covered coffee beans.  But really anything that screams decadence can be used.

Serve with cream, ice-cream or even just with great coffee.  Then....enjoy

This cake does store well and refrigerate well.