Pumpkin and Apricot Fruit Cake, with a touch of nostalgia

 

Here we are in September already. Spring has well and truly sprung, and it is still cool enough here to bake a fruit cake and have this on hand over the weekend. This one is a real favourite in our family, incorporating beautifully rich Kent or Jap pumpkin. Boiled fruit cakes are a great standby to have on hand in case you have people dropping in for a cuppa without much warning or if you are in for a busy time and won't be doing much cooking. They take a little while to make, however they are very simple to prepare. 

I think it is a good idea to have a boiled fruit cake recipe in your cooking repertoire when planning ahead for morning and afternoon teas, or homemade lunchbox treats etc. This one is based on the pumpkin fruit cake my Mum used to make. I've increased the amount of  mixed fruit and added a cup of Apricot Nectar, a tip I saw on the back of a Sunbeam mixed fruit packet, resulting in a very moist cake which cuts beautifully. 

I buy the most economical mixed fruit available, preferably one with glace cherries in it though. A can of Apricot Nectar contains two cups of nectar so sometimes it is cost effective for me to make two cakes at the same time. I really enjoy baking a fruit cake while the weather is still cooler, with the delicious and nostalgic aromas wafting through the house and the oven warming up the kitchen.

Ingredients:

500g (16 oz.) dried Mixed Fruit (or include 125g. (4 oz.) each of sultanas, chopped dates, chopped apricots and whole cherries and chopped raisins in the 500g.)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
125g (4 oz.) butter, chopped
1 cup Apricot Nectar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup Plain flour, sifted
1 cup Self Raising flour, sifted
1 cup well drained cooked pumpkin, mashed and cold (I cook this the day before and refrigerate)

Let's cook:

Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.

Place the mixed fruit, sugar, syrup, butter, and apricot nectar in a large saucepan.

Bring to the boil, stirring continuously, and then simmer gently for 10 minutes. This will plump up the fruit beautifully.

Remove saucepan from the heat and add the bicarbonate of soda.  The mixture will froth up. Keep stirring gently until the frothing dies down. If it doesn't froth up, it means the bicarb of soda is probably stale and won't work properly.

Allow the mixture to cool.

At this stage preheat your oven to 160 degrees C.

When mixture has cooled, add the cold pumpkin and then the eggs and beat in gently until mixture is smooth.

Then add the flours and mix well to combine.

Place the mixture in the cake tin and bake for 90 minutes. Insert a skewer into the cake to check it is cooked. It will come out clean if the cake is cooked.

Original Pumpkin Fruit Cake recipe. Mum always used Fairy Cooking Margarine, much cheaper, and the results were still delicious.

It's been a month of anticipation and a big week. I have only been cooking dinners this week, and now this cake, as our French family, my son Matthew and his partner Myrtille, and our three beautiful grandchildren, Hugo, Finn and Evie, flew into Melbourne on Wednesday evening, and will be living in Northern Victoria on the Murray River until they decide where they want to live. Matthew will be working in Agriculture in southern New South Wales, so it has been a very exciting time, and we have been trying to organise having the power and gas connected for them, and the water, in their new home, which it was almost impossible for them to do whilst still living overseas. They needed to live where the jobs are. So even though it is still a long way to travel to visit them, it is much easier than undertaking a long haul flight overseas to France. My heart is full with anticipation. 

Thanks for dropping by,

Warm wishes

Pauline