Dundee Cake

Dundee Cake

Recipe source : bbcgoodfood

I have often seen pictures of the Dundee Cake and I just love the way the golden brown almonds are arranged on top. So I looked it up and here is what Wikipedia baba has to say about the Dundee Cake. 

This cake originated in 19^th century Scotland and was originally mass produced by a marmalade company. The almonds were added because Mary, Queen of Scots didn’t like glace cherries on her cake.

I used to think it must be really difficult to make this cake but then I decided to take the plunge. The cake took some effort but it was worth it. Never be afraid to try out new things. The worst that can happen is that you will fail once and learn what not to do the next time.

Ingredients

100 gms blanched almonds

100 gms ground almonds

180 gms butter

18 gms light muscavado sugar

225 gms plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp apricot jam or marmalade

2 tbsp milk

3 large eggs

420 gms mixed dry fruits ( I used cashews, raisins, tutti frutti and candied peels)

Grease and line a springform tin. 

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.

For the blanched almonds put the almonds in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Let it sit for 20 minutes and then the skin will peel off easily. Skin the almonds and keep them whole.

Cream the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy. Add the apricot jam/marmalade and mix well. Add the eggs one at a time. Sieve the flour and baking powder and slowly fold into the batter. Now add the ground almonds and fold in.

 Add the mixed dry fruits and fold. 

Pour the batter in the cake tin. Level the top with a spatula. Now arrange the almonds on the cake.

Bake at 170 degrees for 45 minutes. Then lower the temperature and bake for another 50-60 minutes. I prefer putting a foil over the cake after some time. So after the first half an hour of baking was done I put a foil on top.