light fruit cake with kiwifruit slices and vanilla frosting

I was browsing the shelves in a supermarket when I came across a tub of vanilla frosting. It looked tempting, so I decided to buy it.

Having bought the frosting, I was debating what to do with it and I decided to bake a light fruit cake and add the vanilla frosting (in place of whipped cream). The frosting is very thick and hence, it is not very easy to spread onto the cake. However, be patient when spreading the frosting and you will be rewarded with big smiles from your guests.

Ingredients

1/2 cup dried mixed fruits (bloomed)
1 1/4 cups self-raising flour
250g butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground almond
2 eggs
1/3 cup cooking oil
vanilla frosting
kiwifruit (sliced)
chocolate rice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease a 9" square cake pan and line with baking paper.

3. Soak the dried mixed fruits in some room temperature water. When the dried fruits have expanded, drain off the water. Set aside.

4. Sift the self-raising flour. Set aside.

5. Cream the butter, sugar and milk until light and fluffy.

6. Add the vanilla essence, ground cinnamon and ground almond. Mix well.

7. Stir in the bloomed dried mixed fruits.

8. Add the eggs, 1 at a time.

9. Fold in the flour until well blended.

10. Pour the batter into the greased and lined cake pan.

11. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

12. When the cake has cooled, slice the cake cross-section. Spread vanilla frosting on each of the 2 inner sides of the cake. Place a layer of sliced kiwifruit on top of the bottom layer of the cake and sandwich with the top layer of the cake.

13. Spread the vanilla frosting throughout the external part of the cake before sprinkling the cake liberally with chocolate rice.

14. Refrigerate the cake until it is time to be served.

15. For easy slicing, use a hot knife to slice the cake.

Tips

1. If you would prefer that the cake be a chocolate fruit cake, you can sift 2 tbsp cocoa powder and 2 tbsp Milo together with the self-raising flour.

2. The vanilla frosting is rather sweet, so if you do not have a very sweet tooth, you may want to substitute it with whipped cream instead.