andiesenji's Fruited Cocoa Cake
Source of Recipe
andiesenji at eGullet.org original recipe ca. 1690
Recipe Introduction
I made this cake just last weekend. I was so good and so uncomplicated. This cake has a deep, rich cocoa flavor and the fruit and nuts add texture. This is not really what I think of as a fruitcake (a good thing, in my opinion) because the fruits are dried rather than candied (or whatever the abomination is called that they do to the innocent fruits in most fruitcakes), but it is moist and has a lovely crumb. The history of the cake is as interesting as the cake. andiesenji sent it to me after seeing my Recipe Circus website and I was so honored. Here are her notes on the cake and the history of the recipe: "Here is a very old family recipe. The earliest mention of the cake is in one of my ancestor's journals ca. 1690. My great-grandmother found the "receipt" and deciphered the recipe in about 1880. My great-grandmother was a very aristocratic English lady who never did any cooking or baking herself but she was an avid collector of recipes and kept regular journals. She travelled extensively in Europe and the near east, including Egypt, and loved trying "new" foods. She was extremely adept at encouraging her various cooks (and my grandfather's cook when I was a child) to experiment with the recipes she resurrected from her notes. Although it was prepared at other times of the year, it was always called Christmas Cake. I brought it up to date about 20 years ago when I was allowed access to my great grandmama's journals. I have continued to refine it right up to the present.
Like many cakes of that era it contains dried fruits and is fairly heavy. You can use a combination of dried fruits, but the larger ones have to be chopped so all pieces are about the same size. I have used cherries, cranberries, blueberries, black currants, Zante currants, sultanas and my home-dried extra sweet seedless red grapes, dried plums, dried persimmons, peaches and pears. As long as the total amount is as listed in the recipe, it doesn't matter about the combination or it can be made entirely with a single type of fruit. I often make this for parties and most people love it. Technically it is a "fruit" cake but even people who do not care for fruitcake will eat this. Also like most of the English cakes that are served at tea, it keeps very well, as I have noted in the recipe.
NOTE: It is important to use DUTCH PROCESS COCOA. If you can't find it you have to use baking POWDER instead of baking SODA. I use King Arthur Flour's Double Dutch Cocoa and Black Cocoa Half and Half.
When glazed with the glaze at the end of the recipe, this cake will keep for several days at room temp and will stay incredibly moist. I have in the past made this cake ahead of time and wrapped it well in aluminum foil and kept it in a cool place for 6 weeks. However I now live alone. When my family was still all together, I could not keep it more than a couple of days......to give you an idea of the way things used to be, the original "receipt" called for 6 pounds of twice-boulted flour and 3 full pound loaves of sugar well beaten..... 2 pounds of butter and 3 dozen eggs."
I used raisins, cranberries and figs since that was what I had. The cake was really wonderful and not at all hard to make. I had great success the first time and what we didn't eat on the weekend was devoured by Mike's office folks. The directions are in andiesenji's words - I couldn't improve on the delivery or the clarity.
List of Ingredients
CAKE:
1 cup BUTTER unsalted
1-1/2 tsp SALT
1 tsp CINNAMON, ground Any of these spices are better if freshly ground.
1 tsp CLOVES, ground
1 tsp NUTMEG, ground
1 tsp ALLSPICE, ground
1/3 cup COCOA, Dutch process
3 cups superfine SUGAR
4 extra-large EGGS
3 tsp BAKING SODA
4 cups unbleached FLOUR
1-1/2 cups CURRANTS or raisins, any color.
1-1/2 cups DRIED CHERRIES or dried cranberries, dried blueberries.
1-1/2 cups WALNUTS, chopped or pecans or macadamia nuts, etc. I've used pistachios and even used pine nuts one time.
3 cups APPLESAUCE, unsweetened chunky style if you can find it, even better is homemade.
ORANGE GLAZE:
GRATED PEEL OF 2 ORANGES
1/3 CUP SUGAR
1/4 CUP WATER
1 CUP ORANGE JUICE
3 TABLESPOONS GRAND MARNIER LIQUOR OR BRANDY
Recipe
CAKE:
Preheat oven to 350 F
Grease and flour a deep 11" x 15" pan or 2 10-inch square pans or 2 holiday mold pans. This will fill a large Bundt pan with enough batter left for a mini loaf or 2-3 muffins.
In a large mixing bowl (or mixer bowl) cream together butter, salt, spices, cocoa and sugar. beat until smooth.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after adding each one.
Mix baking soda with flour and sift, reserve 2 heaping tablespoons.
Add flour to batter alternately with applesauce. Sprinkle the fruit and nuts with the reserved flour, toss to coat well and fold into cake batter. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 1 hour or until cake tests done. (deeper pans will require longer baking)
Turn cake out onto cooling rack and allow to cool completely if simply dusting with confectioner's sugar for presentation. If using glaze, it can be applied while cake is still slightly warm.
GLAZE:
Combine ingredients in saucepan, bring to simmer, stirring constantly, continue cooking until liquid is reduced by 1/2. Drizzle over cake ( I use a turkey baster and a perforated spoon as the glaze is too hot to dip my fingers into which is usually the way I drizzle icing).
After the glaze has set, decorate edges of the cake and the plate edges with powdered sugar sifted thru a fine sieve or use a cut-out pattern or paper "lace" doily. You can also drape the cake with rolled fondant or decorate with cutouts of the fondant and brightly colored candied fruits. For dedicated chocoholics, melted chocolate can be drizzled or poured over the cake. Some people like the fluffy white "7-minute" frosting similar to that used on "Black cakes" from Jamaica.
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