Ok so in the week that was everything I ever baked ever, I made Dundee cake, as well as the Queen mother’s favourite cake that just happened to be a gingerbread sort of business. I have no idea where this came from (I think I was Googling royal recipes?) but all of a sudden I was going to make Dundee cake although I’d never heard of it before – if the Queen never leaves home without a slice, it must be GOOD.
And so it’s a fruit cake. I don’t normally get excited about fruit cake, but here we are. There’s meant to be mixed fruit and currants and peel and whisky and orange marmalade and dark muscovado sugar and that combination is nowhere near as frightening as I’ve been led to believe.
This made SUCH a hefty cake. I ate a ton, and then I took it to a work meeting and we merrily hacked away at it there, and then I ate more, then I took what was left to Rushworth recently to see my fam and it was STILL GOING WHEN I LEFT. This cake is apparently the magic pudding of cakes.
So, put the kettle on. No wait – you’re meant to bake this cake and then wrap it in foil for three days (it gets better with time, I’m told) so make it before you need it. It will smell so good you will cry and have to make the Queen Mum’s gingerbread concoction to get through the agony of waiting. But yeah, go here, make the cake, and then put the kettle on.
Have you ever had it before? Got a legit nana recipe I can borrow?!
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PinDescription
A famous traditional Scottish fruitcake, reportedly a teatime favourite of Queen Elizabeth II
Ingredients
- 100g blanched almonds
- 180g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 180g light muscovado sugar
- zest 1 large orange
- 3 tablespoons marmalade
- 225g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 large eggs
- 100g ground almonds
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 500g mixed dried fruit
- 100g whole glacé cherries, chopped roughly
Glaze
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 2 teaspoons caster sugar
Instructions
- Add the blanched almonds to a small bowl and pour boiling water to just cover. Leave to soak for 5 minutes, before draining and leaving to dry.
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until soft.
- Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add orange zest and marmalade and stir to combine.
- Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating before adding the next.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and ground almonds and mix.
- Stir in the milk.
- Stir in the fruit and gently mix to incorporate it fairly evenly.
- Pour into prepared pan, smooth down the top and decorate with the now-dry blanched almonds. The traditional decoration is for the almonds to be in concentric rings over the surface.
- Bake 45 minutes.
- Lower the oven temperature to 160C and bake another 60-80 minutes, checking just before the 60 minute mark with a skewer to see if the inside is cooked. The skewer should come out relatively clean, but it’s best to be on the slight underside of done with this cake as it dries out super-fast.
- When finished, combine the glaze milk and sugar in a small pan and brush it over the surface. Leave to cool in the tin before removing completely.
- Wrap entirely in foil and keep in a cool dark place for at least two days for the flavours to mature.
Notes
Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food
Keywords: Dundee cake, fruit cake, tea cake, Scottish cake, Scottish tea cake, traditional Dundee cake
JohannaGGG says
June 19, 2015 at 12:49 pmI love nana recipes. I have never made a dundee cake but I have a feeling I might have tasted it but I get fruit cakes confused. It looks pretty with the nuts on top. I think the nana recipe that comes to mind because a friend and I were discussing it recently is golden syrup dumplings – such great comfort food (I have a recipe on my blog)
Veggie Mama says
June 22, 2015 at 9:26 amOh I haven’t made those for years!
Monique@The Urban Mum says
June 20, 2015 at 4:09 pmLove any fruit cake, grew up in New Zealand and it was fruit cake paradise…they really do get better with age (I make my Christmas Cake every year at least 3 months out – Nigella has an amazing recipe)…Dundee is divine with the marmalade…I also like Albert Squares, I think they are one of the Queen’s favourites too…she is an incredible bird, I think…x
Veggie Mama says
June 22, 2015 at 9:26 am*googles Albert Squares*
Philippa says
June 22, 2015 at 3:55 amI do enjoy a good fruitcake. The best one I’ve ever had is the one my Mum makes every Christmas, which is Belinda Jeffery’s tried and true one. Absolutely amazing. I only get to have some every third or fourth Christmas these days 😉
Veggie Mama says
June 22, 2015 at 9:27 amYou know, I don’t think I’ve ever tried a Belinda Jeffery recipe. I think I’m missing out!
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