Despina's Christmas Australian fruit cake

This one is actually a Christmas recipe but I like to make it in autumn, as it includes all the right ingredients, such as orange and cinnamon, dried fruit and nuts.

It becomes a bit dry and it is great for dipping into tea. This recipe was given to me a friend's mother, Despina, many years ago and I found it again while cleaning up one of my drawers in my mother's house. So happy to have made it again :)

Despina's Christmas Australian fruit cake

ingredients 

• 1 tea-cup of butter
• 1 tea-cup of brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tea-cups cup of orange juice
• 3 tea-cups of all purpose flour
• 2 tea-spoons baking powder
• 1 tea-cup of raisins
• 1 tea-cup of dates in cubes
• 1 tea-cup of dried plums in cubes
• 1 tea-cup of other dried fruit of your choice
• 1 tea-cup of crushed walnuts
• 1-2 tea-spoons of cinnamon
• Some butter and flour for the pan
• Some extra flour for the dried fruit

instructions 

1. Beat the butter with the sugar for a few minutes, until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the eggs one by one.
3. Add orange juice and cinnamon.
4. Then the flour, which is already including the baking powder.
5. Mix the dried fruit with a spoon of flour and add them in the cake-mix together with the nuts.
6. Grease the cake form (24cm) and sprinkle some flour so your cake doesn't stick.
7. Bake for about an 45 min to and hour in 180C pre-warmed oven.

Dried fruit are mostly sweet so using brown sugar will make your cake not as sweet.

Putting the dried fruit in flour will prevent them from sinking in the bottom of the cake. Flour also prevents the cake from sticking on the baking form.

The baking time varies based on the fruit you use. For example dried prunes are more moist than dried apricot, so you better check your cake while baking and take it our once it is done. 

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