Let Them Eat Cake!
Farm life has kept me out of the kitchen, and I'm ashamed to admit that I am weeks late with my holiday baking, which really should have been done closer to Samhain/Hallowe'en. But here's what I SHOULD be baking: my favorite Christmas/Yule recipe and a much lighter alternative to standard--and infamously inedible--fruitcakes.
DUNDEE CAKE
(traditional Scottish midwinter treat)
1/4 cup flour (all-purpose unbleached wheat or white spelt)
1/2 cup dried currants
1/2 cup sultanas (a.k.a. golden raisins)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup candied cherries (homemade are best, avoid the dyed "glace" ones if you can)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup ground almonds or almond meal (I like to toast the meal in a dry skillet first)
1 pinch sea salt
3/4 cup butter, softened (accept no substitutions!)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar or sucanat (unrefined cane sugar: great stuff!)
3 large eggs
1 Tbsp whiskey (a little extra won't hurt...use a good single malt if you can.)
12 whole blanched almonds
1.) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Set out a deep 6-inch cake tin (springform-type works well) and line it with baking parchment or waxed paper.
2.) In mixing bowl, toss the dried and candied fruits in 1/4 cup flour.
3.) Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT the blanched almonds.
4.) Fold ingredients together. Blend well but do not overmix.
5.) Pour batter into lined cake tin. Arrange blanched almonds gently and decoratively on top of batter. (A few cherries can be added too, if you wish.)
6.)Bake for one-and-a-half to two hours.
7.) Cool in tin overnight.
8.) Remove from tin, but do not remove parchment/waxed paper from cake. Now you can hide it away in a metal box until Christmas/Yule/Hogmanay, or send it off to relatives and friends so that they can do the same.
This recipe can be doubled or tripled for multiple cakes. I can usually make three at a time in my largest mixing bowl, though it gives my arms and the wooden spoon a bit of a workout.
With so much almond meal and dried fruit, this is actually a rather nutritious treat--sort of the traditional Scottish equivalent of a "power bar." I sometimes add candied ginger and dried apricots as well. Another option: get a brick of marzipan, roll it out into a thin sheet, and wrap the entire cake. (Be sure to remove the parchment/waxed paper before you apply the marzipan!) Seal the edges and press a few additional cake decorations into the top of the marzipan if you like. Store it away as long as you can--I've found that marzipan, whispering from the inside of a metal tin, has a most compelling voice!
Note: above photo borrowed from Scottish Foodie Guide
posted by MaineCelt @ 6:49 AM
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