My Cooking and My Garden: FRUIT CAKE AND FOUGASSE

Fruitcake is a cake that contains dry fruit, candied, and it is rich, moist and dense but delicious.
Christmas Cake is made out of the fruitcake with extra richness by adding liquor-brandy, rum, sherry etc. and dressed up in beautiful colourful glace fruits-red and green cherry, nuts, glace oranges, glace pear, apricot and angelica. It keeps well up to six months or even more.
I bake fruitcake at Christmas time, and usually, it cooks and prepares by November.
This year I have decided to bake in early December with a different recipe, I do indeed to have my family recipe, but last year I made a beautiful boiled fruit cake, for the first time and it was successful.

I used olive oil for this year fruitcake instead of butter, and I could see no difference, as a result, hope it is as good when it cuts.

The Process

The Baking

After it's baked, let it be cold in the tin. Brush the top and the bottom of the cake with sherry.

Wrap in baking paper, plastic wrap, and wrap securely in foil. Now, wrap in a cloth and place in the refrigerator.

To Store

The cake is secured/ wrapped with the large cloth, keep in the refrigerator or in a dry place at the pantry.

It is not too late to bake the Christmas cake, it gives two weeks, enough time to be mature.

The Recipe of the Fruitcake, based on recipes, a few adjustments have been made.

Boiled Fruit Cake

Ingredients

· 1/2 cup of orange juice

· 1/2 cup dry sherry

· 3/4 cup canola oil

· 1 kg of mixed dried fruit

· 3/4 cup firmly packed soft brown sugar

· 2 tbsp treacle

· 1/2 tsp baking soda

· finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

· 4 large eggs, lightly beaten

· 2 cups plain flour

· Mixed of these fry ingredients cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger powder.

· (about a tablespoon altogether)

· 65 g raw whole almonds for decoration also glace cherries.

Method

Preheat oven to 140 °C. Grease an 18cm square cake tin and line the base and sides with a double thickness of the non-stick baking paper.

Place orange juice, sherry, oil, dried fruit, sugar and treacle in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer very gently for 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in baking soda. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Stir in lemon zest and juice and beaten eggs. Add sifted flour, cocoa and spice and stir to combine.

Spread mixture into the prepared tin, smoothing the surface. Arrange almonds on the surface of the cake.

Bake for 2 hours 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow cooling completely before removing from the tin.

I baked the cake for 3 hours. Switch the oven off. Brush the hot cake with sherry over the top, trap with baking paper and a clean tea towel over the cake, then I put it back in in the oven until the next morning. (So, it is not following the recipe, is it any good? only time will tell)

To store any fruitcake, wrap tightly in a double layer of greaseproof paper and store in a cool place. 'Feed' the cake with brandy at intervals (say once a week) by poking it all over with a skewer, then doused with brandy. The brandy will soak in through the holes and permeate the cake with flavour. (Julie Le Clerc).

FOUGASSE. Pretty Flat Bread.

In the mood of baking, the kitchen was busy for a couple of days, and why not. Here I baked not sourdough bread but a beautiful bread - fougasse with olive, for a treat. Fougasse is the traditional bread in Provence, and the shape looks like a leaf, a flatbread, prepared with herbs or olives. You could say, it is a focaccia French Style.

The last baked was quick enough, as I got the ready bread dough in my freezer. It looked good and pretty, thin and crisp to touch, and the taste was alright. But, overall, it's rather hard, the family was not impressed. Indeed, I did not mind, though. I did a better job on the previous baking, the Fougasse had a better shape an texture, a tasty and delicious flatbread.

This is what my Fougasse looks like.