Bush Fruit Christmas Cake
Servings: 12 | Prep Time: 30 mins plus standing Cook Time: 3 hours | Skill Level: 1 (Easy)
Ingredients
- 1½ cups sultanas
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup coarsely chopped pitted dried dates
- 2½ cups fresh or frozen quandong, de-seeded
- ½ cup chopped dried apricots
- ¼ cup quandong jam
- ¾ cup orange liqueur or orange juice
- 250 g butter, softened
- ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1½ cups macadamia nuts
- 1 tsp ground bush tomato
- 1 tsp ground pepperberry
- 1 tsp wattleseed, toasted and ground
Decoration
- 1 cup apricot jam
- 1½ cups water
- 500 g fresh or frozen quandong halves
Method
- Combine fruit, jam and liqueur in a large bowl and mix well. Cover and stand overnight or for several days, stirring mixture occasionally.
- Pre-heat oven to 140°C. Line the base and sides of a deep 20 cm round cake tin with baking paper, allowing 5 cm to extend above the tin.
- Beat butter and sugar in a small bowl with an electric beater, until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just combined between each egg. Add butter mix to fruit mixture and stir well. Stir in sifted flour and mixed spice, then macadamias, bush tomato, pepperberry and wattleseed.
- Spread mixture evenly into cake tin. Bake for 3 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Decoration: place jam and water in a small saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer uncovered until reduced to half. Strain into a bowl, discarding pulp. Allow to cool. Thaw quandongs if frozen.
- Quickly toss quandong halves in cooled glaze. Carefully place halves on top of cooled cake. This is a very sticky job, but take your time.
