Of Fruit Cake and 29 Years

What does a fruit cake has to do with a span of 29 years? Well, 25th December 2012 marked the 29th year of my mum and dad's marriage. Yes, it was their 29th anniversary. My dad loves fruit cake, so does my mum. As suggested by my brother, I baked a fruit cake on that day. It has been ages since I baked one, so it was about time. And they enjoyed it! That night, we went for a Thai feast at restaurant. These are what we ate, well, some of them: 

All seafood. There were spicy tom yum soup, garlic and ginger steamed fish, deep fried squids in crispy batter, spicy prawns, sweet and sour snapper, and some other dishes which I could not remember because I ate way too much. Ok now, back to the cake. This fruit cake recipe is given by my aunt. My brother used to make this and I would watched him then, learning a trick or two from him. In fact, I learned a lot from him. Nowadays, he considered himself a retiree in this baking thing and well, pass the baton to me. And oh, before I forget, my aunt said she used to make this cake with molasses. You can in fact replace the brown sugar with molasses, but I am not sure the amount of molasses needed in place of the sugar. Maybe I could find out the next time I bake this cake. For now, this is the recipe:

Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

12oz (340g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
400g mixed fruit*, or mincemeat as the Brit would call it
12oz (340g) unsalted butter (softened)
6oz (170g) dark brown sugar (or you could substitute half the sugar with molasses, if u fancy)
5 large eggs
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest
2 tbsp orange marmalade
3 tbsp Sunquick* brand orange fruit drink base 
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 165C. Grease and line a 9-inch square tin with parchment paper. 
2. Sift flour and baking powder into the mixed fruit. Stir that mixture thoroughly so that all fruits are coated and set aside.
3. Cream butter until pale and creamy.Add sugar gradually and continue beating until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time, mix well.
5. Add the vanilla extract, orange marmalade and Sunquick fruit drink base.
6. Add the flour and mixed fruit mixture and mix well. Throw in the orange zest just before baking. 
7. Pour into the lined tin and bake for 60 mins or until the cake turns brown and a testing skewer comes out clean.
   

Notes (*):

1. I find the mixed fruit sold at major supermarkets consist mostly of raisins, thus they lack colour. I always 'make' my own mixed fruit. I bought packets of raisins, sultanas, red and green cherries, candied orange peel, and I add candied nutmeg, almond nibs, and other nuts like walnuts or hazelnuts and I mixed them altogether. The original recipe might call for 400g, but I think my mixed fruit and nuts would weigh around 550g)   




2. This is the orange fruit drink base that I used, the same one that i added in my Orange Lemon Almond Buttermilk Pound Cake: