It’s the turn of the Scottish today! In my tour of the UK for my (self-imposed) RBS 6 Nation Challenge I’ve moved to the most northern nation in the competition. Scotland!
I decided on a Dundee Cake to represent the Scots, partly because I’ve never actually tried one before. Usually, I’m not a big fan of fruit cakes, but Dundee Cake looked lighter than the traditional Christmas cake I’m used to so I thought I’d give it a go.
I got the recipe from my friend Tom, it’s one his Mum uses and he recommended it to me. So thanks to them for this blog post! I sent him a photo of the finished cake as well, and his first response was to point out that it was wrong and there’s no almonds on it (I forgot to buy them and didn’t realise until it was too late, there are ground almonds in th mix it’s just the decoration that’s missing) so thanks too – I guess – for that, Tom. 😉
Poor decoration or not, this was really tasty! Not too sweet, slightly crumbly and not the ratio of sultanas/currants to mixed peel is good (that’s the bit I’m not fond of). So I’m passing on the recommendation I was given to you guys reading this.
Ingredients:
- 225g plain flour
- pinch of salt
- 225g unsalted butter
- 225g caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 350g sultanas
- 350g currants
- 75g chopped mixed peel
- 110g glacé cherries
- zest of a lemon
- 25g ground almonds
- 25g whole almonds (oops!)
All that’s really needed for this is a round cake tin – mine is spring form – greased and lined. Preheat the oven to 150°c
Method:
- Sift together flour and salt in a bowl.
- Cream together butter and sugar until they are light and creamy. Bit by bit, beat in the eggs.
- Fold the flour/salt mix into the eggs, butter and cream. Then add in the currents, sultanas, peel, cherries, zest and ground almonds. Thoroughly mix them until they’re incorporated all the way through.
- Pour the mix into the tin and make it as level as you can. Arrange the almonds in concentric circle patterns on the top.
- Bake the cake for 2 hours, using a skewer to check whether it is cooked. A skewer in the centre should come out clean.
- If the top is browning too quickly, cover it with a dampened piece of parchment paper.
- Take it out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 30 mins before turning out and leaving on a wire rack to finish cooling.
- To store the cake, wrap it in it’s lining paper in foil.
At the bottom of the recipe I was sent it say ‘The cake will taste even better if you keep it for two weeks or so before cutting.’ but I can’t tell you whether that’s true or not, because – lets be honest – cake doesn’t tend to last that long around me! If you have the self restraint to leave it two weeks please let me know if it really does taste better.
Cinnamon Sally 