GINGER WINE AND BRANDY FRUIT CAKE
This tea cake is laced with ginger wine and brandy for a beautifully moist, flavourful cake. It will keep for at least six months.
Preparation time: overnight
Cooking time: 90 mins
Ingredients
- 300gms raisins
- 150gms currants
- 150gms sultanas
- 200ml Stone’s Oringinal Ginger Wine
- 50ml St Agnes Brandy, plus extra for feeding the cake
- 200g Butter, plus extra for greasing
- 200g/7oz dark brown sugar
- 4 free-range eggs
- 50g almond flour
- 200g plain flour
- 1 tbsp finely chopped stem ginger
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 2 tsp ground ginger
Method
- Soak the raisins, currants and sultanas in the Stone’s ginger wine and St Agnes Brandy in a bowl overnight, or preferably for two days.
- Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and line a 20cm/8in cake tin with butter and greaseproof paper.
- Beat the butter until pale and fluffy. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly.
- Add an egg and the ground almonds and some of the flour, then alternate adding the remaining eggs and flour until all incorporated.
- Stir in the soaked fruits and extra liquid along with the stem ginger, mixed spice and ground ginger. Mix well.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approximately one hour 30 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. (Check the cake after an hour – you may want to cover the tin with foil to prevent the cake from colouring too much.)
- Once the cake has cooled, prick the cake all over with a skewer and feed the cake with a little St Agnes brandy. The cake can be served immediately, but for an extra rich, moist cake repeat the feeding at least twice over a two-week period.
- Wrap the cake in baking parchment or cling film and store in a dark dry place until, ready to serve. The cake will keep for at least six months.
