The first bag of Agen prunes I bought didn’t last me very long at all. I ate three a day, every day, from the day they arrived. I also used a handful or so of them in a prune and Armagnac tart. I’ve reordered the prunes from Amazon and this week and have made a prune and almond fruitcake; something a bit different to the traditional ones made using raisins, currants, sultanas and candied peel.
Justin, once again, requested an afternoon fruitcake to accompany a cup of tea. He likes to stop work for a short break about 3pm before charging back into his daily chores!
I had about 100 grams of marzipan leftover from my recent batch of simnel cupcakes, so I sliced it into little cubes and spooned it through the cake mixture; a deliciously successful addition!
As with most fruitcakes, if you can resist the temptation of slicing and eating it straight-away, the texture and flavour improves if left for a day or two.
Click here to pin the recipe for later!
Prune and almond fruitcake
Ingredients
- 115 g butter softened
- 115 g soft brown sugar
- 2 eggs whisked slightly
- 175 g self-raising flour
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- 200 g pitted prunes
- 1 tbsp flaked almonds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas mark 3
- Grease a deep 18cm/7" spring-form or loose-bottomed round cake tin and line base & sides with baking parchment
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
- Pour the eggs over the mixture, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tablespoonful of the flour between each addition to help prevent the mixture curdling
- Mix in the almond extract
- Fold in the rest of the self-raising flour and combine well
- Gently fold the prunes, stirring with a wooden spoon until well distributed through the mixture
- Spoon the mixture into the tin and level off the top with the back of the spoon
- Sprinkle the top with the flaked almonds
- Bake for 1&frac;12 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean
- Once done, remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in its tin
