Glace Festive Fruit and Nut Cake
A 30 year old recipe - at least
One of the best things about Go Vita Springwood is the history that is attached to it. So many stores come and go, but not ours. Although we only just became the caretakers of the store in April 2020, John and Colleen Baker were running the show for the last 30 years. Rummaging through some old paperwork we found a little piece of history: a Dried Fruit Packing Record from August 1980. I know John Baker never threw anything out, but this is amazing!
We asked Liz French (one of our practising Naturopaths and John's daughter) about it, and it was quite a trip down memory lane for her. Apparently locals used to bring in their personal secret recipes, and the Go Vita team would package the precise quantity of ingredients for collection. As you can see from the photo, we stock Glace Pineapple, Glace Apricots, Glace Fruit Salad and Glace Green and Red Cherries.
Slipped inside the packing record was a recipe that was written more than 30 years ago. But unlike all the digital recipes available today, there were not photos to give us an idea of what it would create. So, we took it upon ourselves to make one.
The great thing about this Festive Fruit and Nut Cake is that almost all the ingredients can be purchased from our store, so we gathered them together. Kelly has Coeliac disease (can't have gluten) so we checked with the manufacturer and confirmed the Glace fruit is gluten free (it is) and purchased the Orgran Gluten Free Plain Flour and Self Raising Flour. We bought some Bundaberg Smooth Rum from Chambers Sellers across the road, and a few hours later the house smelled like a delicious fruit and nut cake.
You can print a copy of the recipe below. Let us know when you try it what you think, or maybe you have already made this sometime in the last 3 decades!
Festive Fruit and Nut Cake
Equipment
- Measuring cups
- Whisk
- 9inch x 5inch loaf tin
- aluminium foil
Ingredients
- 250 g Dates pitted and halved
- 250 g Glace Pineapple roughly chopped
- 125 g Glace Apricots roughly chopped
- 125 g Glace Green Cherries
- 125 g Glace Red Cherries
- 250 g Brazil Nuts
- 2 Eggs
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar lightly packed
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 1 tbsp Rum
- 90 g Butter or substitute
- 1/4 cup Plain Flour
- 1/4 cup Self-Raising Flour
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Rum extra
Instructions
- Line and grease a 9 inch x 5 inch loaf tin
- Stone and half dates if neccessary. Chop pineapple and apricots into large pieces. Leave cherries and brazil nuts whole.
- Beat eggs until thick and creamy, add sugar, vanilla and rum. Beat until sugar is dissolved.
- Add softened butter, beat until combined. Stir in sifted flours and salt. Add fruit and nuts, mix thoroughly.
- Spread evenly into prepared tin, bake in a slow oven for 1.5 to 2 hours.
- When cooked, remove from oven, brush evenly with extra rum, cover with foil and leave until cold.
- When cold, remove from tin, re-wrap in foil until you want to eat!
Notes
- An easy way to make this Gluten Free is to swap out the self raising flour and plain flour for a Gluten Free option, like Orgrans. We double checked that the Glace Fruit is gluten free so this is a simple modification for Coeliac's and people with gluten sensitivities.
- You can chop the Brazil nuts if you like, but keeping them whole helps break up the sweetness of the Glace fruit. Plus, they come out really soft after slow baking.
- The recipe calls for "a slow oven". I didn't really know what that meant, so I baked it for an hour on 160 (fan forced) and the balance of the time at 140. In hindsight it probably would have been fine at 140-150 for the entire time.