Alcohol-Free Orange Fruit Cake

I'm not a fan of fruit cakes until Aunty A gave me her bakes.  I don't like fruit cake because I find it too sweet to my liking and the texture is dense and heavy.  Aunty A's cake made me change my opinion as her cake is soft and moist.  When she gave me the recipe, I knew I wouldn't bother to try out as it requires egg separation.  I dislike complicated method, always on the look out for a quick and easy recipe.  I couldn't find any and have been requesting Aunty A to bake and keep some for me :P

Never thought I'll ever attempt to bake this cake until I saw Wendy's recipe here.  No eggs separation, no mixer needed.  Bingo!  This is it!

I don't like candied peels but I was running low on stock for cranberries and currants at home.  Paid a visit to the nearest baking shop but was disappointed as some of our favourite dried fruits were out of stock.  I couldn't wait and refuse to procrastinate further, so I just grabbed a pack of 1kg dried mixed fruits and mixed in some cranberries and currants.

My kids could't wait too so we ate this on the same day it was baked.  Not too bad but I wasn't very impressed.  I gave some to Sis E and reminded her to eat it a week later.  She cured the cake with liquor (I don't know what she used) for 6 days and brought it to my Dad's birthday celebration. All tasters gave thumbs up.  Unfortunately I couldn't make any comparison because I didn't eat it (alcohol content).  Mom requested me to bake this for CNY so I suppose it must be good.

I didn't do justice to this as it was a night shot under warm-white lighting.  Still an amateur in photography :P

If you have seen Wendy's pictures, I'm sure you wouldn't disagree that glace cherries definitely make the cake look more appealing.  But the small tub of red cherries were sold out too.  Lesson learnt, do not attempt last min baking during festive seasons.

Alcohol Free Orange Fruit Cake

Adapted from Wendy of Table for 2

Ingredients

450gm dried mixed fruits

200ml orange juice
2 heaped Tbsp orange zest (I omit as my son doesn't like)
250gm butter
150gm sugar
225 gm all purpose flour
4 large eggs

Method

1. Macerate all the fruits and zest with orange juice, overnight preferably.  I macerated the fruits for only 1 hour.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition.
4. Mix in flour until well combined.
5. Fold in macerated fruits and whatever juice that is remaining.
6. Place batter into 7X7" lined/greased pan.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 140C for 1 hour 20 mins or until a skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean.