light fruit cake with chocolate rice

Many people hesitate to buy, bake or even eat fruit cake because most fruit cakes are very dense and rich. In fact, for the fruit cakes that are baked several weeks before Christmas in preparation of the festive season, you are advised to freeze the fruit cake and once a week, unwrap the cake and liberally pour brandy over the cake before wrapping the cake again and placing the cake back in the freezer. By the time Christmas arrives, you have a wonderfully dense fruit cake that is ready to be shared with one and all.

If you like to eat fruit cakes but are not overly fond of fruit cakes that are very dense, here is my recipe for light fruit cake with chocolate rice. You can omit the chocolate rice if you do not like it. I find that the inclusion of the chocolate rice makes the cake a hit with children.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup ground almond
250 g butter (softened)
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup peanut oil
2 eggs
1 cup dried mixed fruit (bloomed)
1/2 cup chocolate rice

Before I elaborate on the method, I wish to explain what I mean by "blooming" the dried mixed fruits. You can, of course, add the dried mixed fruits directly to the batter. However, I have found that if I were to bloom the mixed fruits before adding it to the batter, the mixed fruits tend to be softer and easier to chew.

To bloom the dried mixed fruits, what you will need to do is to soak the dried mixed fruits in some room temperature water. When the fruits have softened, drain away the water before you add the mixed fruits to the batter.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Sift the self-raising flour, ground cinnamon and ground almond. Set aside.

3. Whisk the butter, castor sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Add the milk, vanilla essence and peanut oil. Mix well.

5. Add the eggs, 1 at a time.

6. Stir in the mixed fruits and chocolate rice.

7. Fold in the flour mixture and mix well.

8. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Tips

1. As my table-top Moulinex oven is old (Da and I bought it in 1998), the baking time for my oven for an 8" or 9" square cake is around 1 hour.

2. If you want your cake to be chocolatey, you can add 2 tbsp of Milo and 2 tsbp of cocoa powder and sift it together with the self-raising flour.