Scottish Dundee Cake
How to make a real fruit cake.
In my January column I mentioned this cake which originated in Dundee, Scotland’s fourth largest city, on the North East coast. Dundee is said to be built on “the three Js: Jute, Jam and Journalism””. In the 19th century it was the global centre of the jute industry while in 1760 James Keiller created the first commercial brand of marmalade, Jam, in the UK. And Dundee is the home of major newspaper publisher and media owner DC Thomson, employing many Journalists.
Ingredients 175 g currants 3 eggs 175 g sultanas 225 g flour 110 g glacé cherries 1 teaspoon baking powder 75 g candied peel milk, if necessary 3 tablespoons whisky 1 small orange & 1 small lemon 150 g butter 2 tablespoons ground almonds 150 g soft brown sugar 110 g whole blanched almonds 1 teaspoon = 5 ml 1 dessertspoon = 10ml 1 tablespoon = 15 ml A glass of Scotch for the cook
Making the cake Begin the night before by preparing the fruit: rinse, dry and halve the glacé cherries; chop the candied peel; grate the orange and lemon rinds, very finely. Put all the fruit, including the sultanas and currants, into a bowl and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of whisky. Mix well, cover, and leave overnight.
You will need either an 18 cm square or a 20 cm round cake tin, greased with butter or margarine, lined with baking parchment.
Take the butter out of the fridge to soften it. Preheat the oven to 170 °C. Put the butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy, or use an electric mixer for more speed. Whisk the eggs separately. Then, a little at a time, stir them into the butter and sugar mixture. If the mixture does curdle, don’t worry: the cake won’t be as light, but it’s not a disaster. Next, sift the teaspoon of baking powder into the flour and, using a large tablespoon, slowly fold the flour into the mixture. This needs to be of a soft, dropping consistency. If it seems too dry, add a dessertspoon, or so, of milk.
Now, carefully fold in the ground almonds, then the currants, sultanas, cherries, mixed peel and orange and lemon rinds. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smoothing it out evenly with the back of the tablespoon. Arrange the whole, blanched almonds in circles on top of the mixture but do this carefully and lightly. If you press the almonds into the mixture, they will sink during baking. Place the cake in the centre of the oven and bake for 2 to 2.5 hours or until the middle of the cake is firm and springy to the touch. Cover with aluminium foil for the last 30 minutes to prevent over-browning. Let the cake cool in the tin for about 30 minutes before taking it out to finish cooling on a wire rack. Peel off the baking parchment.
Enjoy the cake with a cup of tea or coffee ona chilly winter afternoon. It also keeps very well in an air-tight cake-tin – if you can resist it. And some Scots malt whisky for the cook always goes down well, after the hard work in the kitchen.