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.

Christmas Cake

Christmas Cake

Yo ho ho!! It’s the season to be jolly!! 

Christmas cakes are basically fruit cakes with loads of dry fruits soaked in rum for about a month. The dry fruits swell up nice and plump. The cake is infused with the flavour of rum and each bite is a delight. A time consuming process because you have to plan and start much ahead; but worth every minute spent on it.

Ingredients

½ kg mixed dried fruits soaked in rum
 ( I used whatever I had in my pantry. These included munaka, almonds, walnuts, apricots, dried cranberries, kish mish, tooti frutti. You can use whatever you have handy. Just make sure that the weight finally comes to half a kilo.)

½ kg flour
½ kg sugar
½ kg butter
½ kg candied peel
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp baking powder
10 eggs

Spice powder
15 green cardamoms
15 cloves
3 “ cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp nutmeg powder 
2 tbsp sugar 

Black syrup
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp water+ ½ cup water

First of all soak the dry fruits in rum for about a month. Don’t have time? No issue! Try to soak them for at least a week.

For the spice powder grind together all the ingredients.

Now make the black syrup. This is actually homemade treacle. Treacle is an uncrystallised syrup made during the refining of sugar. It is often used for flavour in baking. 

Mix together 1 cup of sugar and 3 tbsp of water and put on a medium flame. When the sugar starts to turn dark brown turn off the heat. Slowly add ½ cup of water.
 Be very careful at this point because when you add water to hot sugar it will splutter. 
The sugar will become rock hard. Not to worry. Put it back on flame and keep stirring. Slowly the sugar will melt and it will become a smooth syrup. Keep cooking till it thickens a little. 
Sift together flour, baking powder and spice powder. Keep aside. 
Beat together butter and sugar. Add the eggs one by one beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla essence and black syrup. Mix well.
Now take a serving spoon and start adding the flour one spoon at a time. Since you are using half a kilo of flour if you dump in all at once you will end up with a lumpy batter. So add one spoon at a time and mix well after each addition. 
Add the candied peel and soaked dry fruits. 
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Reduce the temperature to 140 degrees and bake for about 60-70 minutes. 
The batter is large enough to make 2x9” cakes. So bake in two separate pans or reduce the ingredients accordingly.