English Fruitcake for the Holidays
The fruitcake that stands next to the pan dulce on every Argentine Christmas table: a butter batter with cognac, candied fruit, raisins and walnuts.
One move decides the result and takes ten seconds: the fruit is tossed in a tablespoon of flour before it goes into the batter. The flour gives it grip, so it does not sink to the bottom as the cake bakes.
And it improves with keeping — well wrapped it lasts a week, and from the second day on it tastes rounder. Its big brother is the pan dulce.
🔎 What is self-raising flour? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.
Ingredients
- 200 g soft butter
- 180 g sugar
- 3 eggs
- 300 g self-raising flour
- 80 ml milk
- 2 tbsp cognac or whisky (optional but classic)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 120 g candied fruit
- 100 g raisins
- 80 g walnuts, chopped
- 1 extra tbsp flour, for tossing the fruit
Method
- 1
Heat the oven to 160 °C. Butter and flour a 26 cm loaf tin, or line it with baking paper.
- 2
Beat the soft butter with the sugar until it lightens and turns creamy: that is where the texture of the cake is decided.
- 3
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the vanilla and the cognac.
- 4
Fold in the sifted self-raising flour in two additions, alternating with the milk, using gentle movements.
- 5
Toss the candied fruit, raisins and walnuts with the tablespoon of flour until they are dusted all over: that is what stops them sinking to the bottom during baking.
- 6
Fold them into the batter with a spatula, tip it into the tin and level the top.
- 7
Bake for 55-60 minutes at 160 °C, until a skewer comes out clean. If it colours too early, cover it with foil.
- 8
Cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a rack. Well wrapped in cling film it keeps for a week — and from the second day on it is better.