Fruit & Nut Cake

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ 

Welcome to Q's Kitchen!

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world"
- J.R.R Tolkien
I thought we'd hit things off with a good quote, I think this one is particularly apt because because this past week me and my family have been re-watching The Lord of the Rings movies in the evenings - somewhat of a Christmas holiday tradition. 
Another holiday habit of mine is trying new recipes, this Fruit & Nut Cake is the fruit of one such labour!
I baked this last weekend after realising we had a big bag of dried cranberries that needed to be used, another contributing factor was my mum's insistence! (she's been wanting me to bake a fruit cake for a long time).
For this Sunday's baking session I thought I'd make it again because I love having it for a quick breakfast on work mornings, cake for breakfast doesn't sound too healthy but I'm consoling myself with the fact that its quite nutritious.. and delicious.

This is also wonderful for the colder months, imagine eating this fruity flavourful cake alongside a huge mug of tea whilst you sit by the fire and its snowing outside (hasn't happened to me yet, but it sounds ideal)
    This recipe requires a few ingredients:

• 225g self raising flour
• 110g butter
• 110g sugar
• 235g mixed fruit & nuts
• 1 egg
• 7 tblsp milk
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• orange zest
• 250 ml orange juice

Lets begin:

Firstly I chopped up all my dried fruits and nuts, I used a mixture of apricots, prunes, dates, cranberries, raisins and almonds. Basically what I had in the cupboard, thats one of the good things about this recipe, you can tailor it to what you like and what you have to hand - last time I also used cherries and cashews.

You then want to mix in the orange juice and leave the fruit to soak until it is required. 

Next I measured out my self-raising flour and butter/margarine (you can use either or both like I did, it makes no notable difference to the consistency or flavour); I then rubbed it into the flour until the mixture resembled coarse breadcrumbs.

I then mixed in my sugar - a combination of brown and caster sugar, once again you can use either or both! (yes I cropped out my butter fingers, I'm a very messy cook) 

😪

Now for some great flavour - cinnamon and mixed spice (I'm thinking of the cinnamon roll meme now)

In it goes, add as much or as little as you like, the world's your oyster. 

Give the dry ingredients a good stir then crack in an egg (I had another picture of me cracking the egg but my fingers looked ridiculous, so I'll spare you that one).

Follow this with milk, I used whole but feel free to use skimmed, semi-skimmed etc. whatever floats your boat (I need to stop with the puns). 

Then for some extra sweetness.. and goodness, add in a squeeze of honey, or even golden syrup! 

Now then, not forgetting the star of the show, the fruit & nut - tip them in to the mixture along with any left over orange juice and give everything a stir. The mixture will be very thick but that's what is required here.

I then added in my orange zest - in truth I think this was actually a tangerine hybrid and I couldn't find my grater so I had to scrape the zest off with a knife, it wasn't much fun at all.

Then spoon your mixture into a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper (I have these amazing liners and they save me so much time and aggravation, best thing since sliced bread).

Finally top with a sprinkle of demerara sugar, because you deserve it. 

Pop this into a Gas Mark 4 oven for about 45 minutes, in truth I took mine out earlier than this but keep an eye on it and take out when its golden brown and inserted skewer comes out clean.  
Cake ft. cool oven mitt that a friend got me from Denmark.

And voila there you have it, a delicious Fruit & Nut cake, I mean look at that golden topping.  
😋
Enjoy!
Q x