Monday, September 19, 2011

GLUTEN-FREE and EGG-FREE FRUIT CAKE




(My sister Lisa can't eat egg or gluten and came up with this amazing fruit cake recipe that everyone will love!)

Ingredients
1kg mixed fruit
2 cups of cold tea or apple/pineapple juice
2 cups gluten-free self raising flour

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Baking Time: 2 – 2 ½ hours

METHOD

1. The night before, the fruit and liquid in a bowl and put it in the fridge to rest.
2. The next day (or a minimum of 6 hours later), stir in the flour. It’s best to do this gradually as gluten-free flour is very dry and fine.
3. Preheat the oven to 125 degrees Celcius and bake for 2 to 2 ½ hours.
4. Rest on bench, then after 10-15mins, tip onto a cooling rack. Don’t cut the cake until it’s substantially cooled; it’s much easier to cut through the doughy texture once it has cooled down.

NOTES

I made this recipe with 450g of tinned pie apples, 500g sultanas and a few handful of pitted dates. With the use of tinned apples, I only used 1 cup of cold tea (as the moisture from the apples is a substitute for the other cup). If I was to make it ‘traditionally’ with 1kg of sultanas, raisins and currants, then you do want the 2 cups – it will soak into the fruit overnight, and provide moisture for the cake.

You can put any sort of fruit in this cake, and experiment with the moisture and flour required to get a consistency and balance that you enjoy.

However, even if you halve the quantities and make a smaller, apple and sultana tea cake, I suggest cooking at a low temperature for a similar amount of time. The apples make the cake very moist, and though some recipes say you can cook at 160-180 degrees for around one hour, I’ve found the cake doesn’t rise as much, and isn’t as fluffy as the slower process (plus, the kitchen smells delicious for much longer!)

Lisa x




 

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