Spiced rum fruit cake with soft cheese frosting
1 HOUR 25 MINUTES + SOAKING + COOLING | SERVES 8 10 | EASY
spiced rum 100ml
mixed peel 100g, chopped
sultanas 100g
glacé cherries 100g, chopped
stem ginger 4 balls, chopped
unsalted butter 150g, softened
golden caster sugar 150g
eggs 2 self-raising flour 175g
ground ginger ½ tsp
ground cinnamon ½ tsp
chopped mixed nuts 150g SOFT CHEESE FROSTING
unsalted butter 50g, softened
soft cheese 100g
icing sugar 200g
spiced rum 1 tbsp
vanilla extract 1/2 tsp
1 Tip the rum, peel, sultanas, cherries and stem ginger into a bowl and leave to soak for 30 minutes, or longer if you can.
2 Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and line a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin with baking paper. Tip the butter into a bowl with the caster sugar and beat with an electric whisk until very light and fluffy. Crack in the eggs and whisk again, then gently fold in the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nuts and a pinch of salt. Scrape in the soaked fruit and any rum from the bowl and fold gently again.
3 Scrape the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. You may need to cover the top with foil if it starts getting a little dark. Cool completely in the tin.
4 To make the frosting, tip the butter and soft cheese into a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until very fluffy. Add the icing sugar, a spoonful at a time, beating well between each addition until you have a thick, fluffy icing. Add the rum and vanilla, and beat really well again.
5 Put the cooled sponge onto a cake plate or stand, then spoon over the frosting and spread to cover the top. Cut the cake into slices and serve.
PER SERVING (10) 603 kcals | fat 27.6G | saturates 13.5G | carbs 72.6G sugars 49.3G | fibre 1.6G | protein 8.5G | salt 0.5G