Whole dried fruit cake

While I dislike Christmas-style fruit cakes, I very much enjoy cakes and breads that are studded with dried fruit. There are many traditional baking recipes of this type, from the Welsh bara brith to the Irish barmbrack and plenty in between. This cake doesn't follow any of the traditional recipes exactly, but does employ the tried and true method approach of soaking dried fruit in tea ahead of time. It includes some sugar, so is more cake than bread, but doesn't add any fat. There is plenty of flavour and plenty of dried fruit.

I made this over the Easter weekend when it was still cold and wintry. I'm pleased to say that spring is finally in the air - the sun is shining, flowers are out, green leaves are sprouting everywhere, and it's meant to get to 18'C this week. I'm soaking it all up. This cake would be a perfect accompaniment to a sunny afternoon, but it will also boost your spirits if you're experiencing grey weather.

I have called this a 'whole dried fruit cake' but the apricots and dates were chopped in half. However, the fruit chunks are so much larger than the chopped fruit in Christmas cakes that the experience is of eating whole (and delicious) pieces.

Whole dried fruit cake

A dense, moist cake liberally studded with dried fruit

Serves 10

Vegan

Author: Bite-sized thoughts, adapted from a recipe for barmbrack cake in the Guardian

Soak the fruit ahead of time / overnight

Ingredients

100g dried apricots, halved

100g sultanas or raisins

100g dried dates, halved

300ml tea (I used Early Grey rooibus tea but regular black tea would be fine)

90g brown sugar

225g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp dried ginger

125ml non-dairy milk, or as needed (I used hemp milk)

Method

The night before making this, or at least 4 hours ahead of time, combine the dried fruit and tea and set aside to soak.

When ready to make the cake, preheat your oven to 180'C and line a round cake tin with baking paper.

Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves and dried ginger in a large mixing bowl. Pour in the dried fruit and tea and stir through. Add the milk gradually, stirring as you go, until the batter is moist. Use a little more milk if needed. The mixture should be thick but able to pour off a spoon.

Transfer the batter to your prepared tin and bake for 60 minutes. Check at 40 minutes and cover with foil if the top is starting to brown. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Do you enjoy dried fruit cakes?

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