Last updated on: By KayleneFiled Under: , Recipes10 Comments
Packed with plump, juicy fruit and sweetened with pumpkin and apricot nectar this Pumpkin Fruit Cake is a luscious snack cake that is almost irresistible!
These days most people can be placed into one of two categories; fruit cake lovers or fruit cake haters. I myself am very much a fruit cake lover! I grew up eating fruit cake as a regular afterschool snack and in my family Christmas just would not be Christmas without a traditional Christmas fruit cake!
Speaking of Christmas cakes, if you want a great Christmas cake recipe check out this Easy Mix Christmas Cake recipe that I shared a couple of years ago. I usually make this Christmas cake a few weeks before Christmas so that it is really rich and moist by Christmas day!
If however you don’t want to wait a few weeks to get a moist and tasty fruit cake then you need to try this pumpkin fruit cake. I came across this recipe on a packet of Sunbeam mixed fruit that I had in the pantry and decided to give it a try (see the original recipe here).
We still have one of our butternut pumpkins from our autumn harvest so I thought this would be great opportunity to try using it in a sweet pumpkin recipe. The only modification that I made to the recipe was to change the shape of the baking tin. The original recipe suggested using a 20cm round tin but I wanted to be able to cut it up into small slices so I chose the rectangular slice tin instead.As a result the fruit cake is not quite as high but it does cook quicker!
So if you can’t wait till Christmas to have a delicious slice of moist fruit cake then I can highly recommend you make this Pumpkin Fruit Cake!
Packed with plump, juicy fruit and sweetened with pumpkin and apricot nectar this Pumpkin Fruit Cake is a luscious snack cake that is almost irresistible!
Author: The Links Site
Recipe type: Brunch, Snack
Cuisine: Cake, Fruit
Serves: 24
Ingredients
500g of mixed dried fruit
1½ cups of lightly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon of golden syrup
125g of butter
1 cup of apricot nectar
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup of cold pumpkin, cooked and mashed*
1 cup of sifted plain flour
1 cup of sifted self raising flour
Instructions
Place mixed fruit, brown sugar, golden syrup, butter, and apricot nectar into a large saucepan and stir it continuously over a medium heat until the mixture comes to the boil.
Once boiling, reduce the heat and allow the mixture to simmer gently for 10 minutes as you continue stirring.
After 10 minutes remove from heat and add the baking soda. Stir the mixture thoroughly and allow it to cool.
While mixture is cooling preheat oven to 160 °C (320 °F) and grease and line a 20cm x 30cm (8 x 12 inch) rectangular slice tin.
Once cooled (saucepan is just warm to the touch) add eggs and pumpkin and beat with wooden spoon until smooth.
Add flours and mix well to combine.
Place mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely in tin before slicing and serving.
Notes
* 300g of raw, peeled pumpkin was enough to give me one cup of cooked mashed pumpkin
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If you find that your pumpkin cake is too moist, isn't holding it's shape and is gummy in certain areas, it's usually caused by too much liquid in your recipe.
Instead of using premixed pumpkin pie spice (which has probably been sitting around for months on a grocery store shelf), make your own by combining cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice.
Everyone's oven is different and you'll get to know the quirks of your own as you use it to bake more and more. If your cake has a soggy middle, the first thing to try is bringing the temperature down a little and baking for slightly longer.
The top can overcook before the middle even gets started. The cake pan could be overfull. A full cake pan takes a lot longer to cook, and you can very easily end up with a cake that is both under, and over cooked.
We recommend wrapping your fruitcake in plastic wrap before placing it in an airtight container.Then, place that container in the fridge. Doing this can ensure your fruitcake stays fresh for up to two months.
The Sugar Pie Pumpkin is often considered the crème de la crème of cooking pumpkins. Its deep orange flesh is sweet, smooth, and creamy, making it perfect for pies, soups, and purees. This culinary gem pairs beautifully with warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, creating irresistible autumnal flavors.
Covering the inside of your pumpkin with cinnamon can help inhibit mold growth. The ingredients that make the spice flammable, cinnamaldehyde and eugenol, also have antifungal and antibacterial properties that prevent mold and bacteria growth. Cinnamon is also a great pest repellent, as bugs can't stand the scent.
Cakes crumble because they've dried out too much. From years of baking, I know that dry cakes happen for one of two reasons; using too much of your dry ingredients or over-baking your cake.
In an oven that's too hot, the outside of the cake cooks at a much faster rate than the inside. A crust forms early on, but as the inside of the cake continues to cook and rise, this crack crusts. You might experience the same problem if the cake recipe has too much leavener or if you've used a pan that's too small.
Fruitcake aficionados will tell you that the best fruit cakes are matured – or “seasoned” in fruitcake lingo – for at least three months before they are cut. Seasoning not only improves the flavor of the fruitcake, but it makes it easier to slice.
This is a common mistake, and can cause your cake to collapse because the rush of cold air stops your caking from rising. Leave the oven closed for at least 3/4 of the cooking time, and then when you do check the cake, if it still needs more baking wait at least 5-10 minutes before opening the oven again.
But before you RSVP to bring dessert, you must plan ahead. Like we said, aging a fruitcake will take a little time. The most common duration to properly age a fruitcake is about three months.
The ratio of wet to dry ingredients determines a cake's moisture level. If there's simply too much flour and not enough butter, a cake will taste dry. On the other hand, if there's too much milk and not enough flour, a cake will taste too wet. Finding the right balance between wet and dry ingredients is key.
If you notice liquid on the top of your pie while it's still in the oven or still hot, then it has been overbaked. Just as above, the proteins in the custard have toughened too much, squeezing out the liquid from the filling. If you notice that the pie is dewy when you remove it from the fridge, it's just condensation.
Used too much liquid, not enough egg or depending on the recipe, not enough thickener like flour or starch. Used fresh pumpkin instead of canned pumpkin. Docked the pie crust. Put it in the refrigerator before it was completely cooled.
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