Dried Fruit and Nut Cake

Dried Fruit and Nut Cake

This dried fruit and nut cake is chock-full of crunchy nuts and moist dried fruit. A new, and maybe even better, twist, on that holiday favorite.

A dried fruit and nut cake is a rich, dense, and flavorful cake made with a mix of dried fruits (like raisins, dates, figs, apricots) and nuts (like almonds, walnuts, cashews, pistachios). It's popular during festive seasons (Christmas, weddings, Chinese New Year, Hari Raya) and also served as a healthy tea-time cake.


The cake is a basic butter cake recipe. I have roughly adapted the recipe from here. In supermarket chains like Jaya Grocer or Aeon, you can find these nut mixes that make life very easy, when you want to bake something like this or make granola. I prefer to go for the premium range as they will have more nuts and lesser raisins, but you can choose as per your choice. Since there is no soaking involved, you can just directly use the nuts into the cake and enjoy them as soon as they are baked. 😉 Since this cake takes a bit longer to bake, make sure to cover the top portion with a foil, just to ensure that the top doesn't get burned.


There was a big blooper for this cake. I realized that I used a much smaller pan only when I had almost finished transferring the entire batter into the pan. I anyway went ahead with it. What then happened was a literally volcano eruption in the oven. I got some free "biscottis" from the batter that spilled out into the tray below. Ah, they were really delicious, mind you! 😉 Lesson learned - always keep your eyes and mind open while doing anything in the kitchen to avoid such goof-ups! Hehe... Off to the recipe...


Easy Fruit and Nut Cake

Prep Time 15minutes minutes

Cook Time 2hours hours

Servings 8pax


Ingredients

-125 gm butter softened

-1/2 cup brown sugar

-3 eggs large, room temperature

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-1 tsp cinnamon powder

-1/2 tsp cardamom powder

-2 cups all purpose flour

-1 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp baking soda

-1/2 tsp salt

-250 gm mixed fruits and nuts from the roastery

-1/4 cup milk


Instructions

1)Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a large loaf pan or 9 inch cake tin.

2)Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy.

3)Add eggs one at a time and beat with each addition to incorporate.

4)Add the vanilla and spices and beat.

5)In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

6)Add 3/4 flour mixture and milk and beat just till combined.

7)Toss the mixed fruits and nuts into the remainder flour. Add into the batter and fold till fully incorporated.

8)Pour into prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or till skewer comes out clean. To avoid the top from burning, lightly cover with aluminum foil after 45 minutes to baking.

9)Once done, cool in pan for a little while or till the cake detaches from the sides of the pan.

10)Flip onto a cooling rack and cool completely before slicing and serving.


Notes

I used the mixed fruits and nuts that you can buy in the roastery or the spice section in major supermarket chains. It will usually be a mix of cashews, pistachios, almonds and a lot of raisins. You can use any mix that you want, even the ones with seeds.