Getting Started with the Fruit Cake
Alright, so today I finally got around to making that glazed fruit cake I’d been thinking about. First things first, I pulled all the gear out. You know, the usual suspects: flour, sugar, butter, eggs. Had a big bag of mixed dried fruit – raisins, cherries, peels, the lot. Decided to give them a good soak first. Poured some orange juice over them in a bowl and just let them sit there for maybe an hour, get plumped up a bit.
Mixing it All Up
Next up was the mixing bowl. Creamed the butter and sugar together until it looked about right, pale and fluffy-ish. Cracked the eggs in one by one, beating them in properly. Then I dumped in the flour mixture – already mixed that with the spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, that sort of thing. Gave it a gentle fold. Finally, tipped in the soaked fruit, juice and all. Folded that through too. The batter felt pretty heavy, which is usually a good sign for fruit cake, I reckon.
Baking Time
I had the oven preheating while I was mixing. Lined my cake tin with baking paper, always a fiddly job but worth it. Scraped the thick batter into the tin, smoothed the top best I could. Then into the oven it went. This part takes ages, always does with fruit cake. Had to leave it in there for a good long while. I checked it after about an hour and a half, poked it with a skewer. Still a bit gooey. Gave it some more time, checked again. Eventually, the skewer came out clean. Smelled pretty good filling the kitchen.
Cooling and Glazing
Pulled it out of the oven carefully. Let it sit in the tin for ten minutes or so before turning it out onto a wire rack. You absolutely have to let it cool completely. No shortcuts here, otherwise the glaze just makes a mess. So, I just left it there for a few hours.
Once it was properly cold, I made the glaze. Kept it simple: just icing sugar and a tiny bit of water. Mixed it until it was thick but pourable. Then I just drizzled it all over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides a bit. Doesn’t have to be perfect, just adds that little something.
All Done
And that’s pretty much it. The cake’s sitting there now, looking quite decent with its shiny top. Took a good chunk of the afternoon, but feels good to have it done. Should taste alright tomorrow with a cup of tea.
