Light Fruit Cake

Sometime last week, my husband asked me if I could bake a fruit cake. Not the Steamed Fruit Cake which I usually made for Hari Raya, but just a baked version. So after looking through some books & websites for a suitable recipe, I decided to use the one from Joy of Baking.

I love the look of the cake... it rises very nicely & that creates a crack on top, which I like. The outer crust has a lovely colour & the colourful fruits make the sliced cake look very pretty. Having said that, I'm not a big fan of dried & candied fruit, so I'm not really excited with how the cake tastes. I took a small slice & thought that there was just too much fruit & that made the cake way too sweet. My husband, on the other hand, thinks the cake is good as it has good amount of fruits & is not too sweet. I guess, that's all that matters.... he likes it!

I made some minor changes to the recipe. I omitted the alcohol, reduced the sugar by 20g  & used the ready-mixed fruits in a box instead of buying the fruits separately. I also coated the fruits with some flour. This is supposed to prevent the fruits from sinking to the bottom as the cake is baking. I also mixed in the fruits after the flour as I didn't want to end up over mixing the fruits which may also cause the fruits to sink. If you're a fan of fruit cake, I think you're going to like it. So, why don't you bake it!

Light Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

250g mixed fruits (candied mixed peel, candied red &/or green cherries & dark raisins)
20g plain flour
50g ground almond (almond meal/flour)
170g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
120g unsalted butter, room temperature
80g granulated white sugar
1/2 tsp salt (Omit if using salted butter.)
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp pure almond extract
Zest of one small lemon (outer skin)
60 ml milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees with the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line & grease a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan.
2. In a bowl, combine the mixed fruits & 20g plain flour & mix well until all the fruits are coated with flour. Set aside.
3. In a different bowl, whisk together the rest of flour, ground almond & baking powder. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, salt & sugar until light and fluffy. 
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the extracts & lemon zest. 
6. Beat in half the flour mixture just until incorporated. Then beat in the milk and then the remaining flour mixture. Mix just until incorporated. Do not over mix.
7. Add the mixed fruits & beat until just incorporated. Do not over mix.
8. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and, if desired, decorate the top of the cake with sliced or flaked almonds. Bake for about 50 -70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (If you find the cake is browning too much, cover with a piece of aluminum foil.) 
9. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before removing from pan. The cake does benefit from being stored a day or two before serving, as this softens the outer crust and allows the flavours to mingle.

Makes one loaf.
Adapted from recipe by Joy of Baking.

Little Thumbs Up Event - March 2015

Finally, after waiting for more than a year, it's now my turn to host 'Little Thumbs Up' event for this month. Yes, it was more than one year ago when I emailed Zoe & expressed my interest to host this event. That's how popular this event is! Thank you Zoe & Mui Mui for organising this event & giving me & many other bloggers the opportunity to share our experiences through it. I'm excited & anxious as this is my first time hosting a blogger event!

I've chosen what I think is one of the most amazing fruits on earth! It's BANANA for this month's theme! We all know the long list of nutritional benefits of this fruit. Besides that, it is also cheap & is available all year round. Where food preparation is concerned, banana is so versatile that it's not only eaten raw, it's also used as an ingredient in so many dishes or desserts. That's what this event is all about.... we're going to prepare something using bananas! So bloggers, come on! Let's go bananas with BANANA!

What you should do to take part in this event:

1. You need to prepare any type of food that has banana in it! You may cook, bake, steam, fry or simply use raw bananas  to prepare your product. 
2. Blog about what you've prepared between 1 & 31 March 2015. Please indicate 'This post is linked to the Little Thumbs Up (March 2015 - BANANA) event organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Faeez of BitterSweetSpicy.' in your post. Then link your post to the thumbnail link (the blue frog) provided at the bottom of this post.
3. The recipe that you use can be your own, from cookbooks, magazines, websites or any other sources. Please indicate the source of the recipe & if it's from a  website, please provide the link.

Please note the following:

1. Your submission must be a current and new post uploaded in the month of March 2015. Blog entries posted before this month are not accepted. 
2. You may submit as many posts as you like by linking  them to the thumbnail link for this event. 
3. Please feel free to display the "Little Thumbs Up" badge, as shown below, in your post. You may also get the badge from here.

I know you would not run out of ideas of what to make with bananas, but if you want to try the recipes that I've shared in my blog before, take a look here. You may also take a look at the entries submitted for this event by clicking on the frog.

Finally, please click  here to take a look at all the entries for February's event - Cocoa, which was hosted by Grace of Life can be simple.

An InLinkz Link-up

 

Bingka Pisang

My family spent the third day of the Lunar New Year with my husband's family at the beach... I prepared nasi lemak & made Bingka Pisang for dessert. Bingka Pisang is a traditional Malay cake which has bananas as one of the main ingredients. It's very easy to make & it's quite unlikely that you will go wrong with this recipe.

I've adapted the recipe shared by Dzana of Inspirasiku. She used only white sugar but I decided to add gula Melaka (palm sugar) & reduced the white sugar. The cake was quite rich as both coconut & evaporated milk were used. You may want to use regular milk instead of evaporated milk for a mildly-rich cake. I find the sweetness level to be just nice. :)

After cutting the cake, I found it to be too soft. I wasn't sure if that's because I had cut it when it's still warm. Anyway, I didn't want to take the chance, so I baked it again (I can't remember how long more.). That's why the sliced piece in the picture below is slightly burnt. Overall, this is a great recipe, so bake it if you have a gathering coming up & lots of banana hanging in the kitchen!

Before I leave you with the recipe, I would like to let you know that BitterSweetSpicy is hosting 'Little Thumbs Up' event for March & the theme is Banana. This is a blogger event where bloggers prepare dishes/desserts based on the theme for the month, post the recipes & pictures in their blogs & link the posts to the event linkup. So if you are a blogger, whip up something using bananas, blog about it & link the post to this event. Go to this post for more details. If you are not a blogger, you can also support us by visiting the posts that are linked to this event. Thank you.

Bingka Pisang

Ingredients:

100g gula Melaka (palm sugar)

2 tbsp water
1 bunch of ripe bananas (I used 8 large pieces.)
140g (1 cup) plain flour
2 tbsp fine sugar
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup evaporated milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter - melted
1/2 tsp salt
Note: If you want to use just fine sugar, replace the gula Melaka & 2 tbsp fine sugar with 3/4 cup of fine sugar.

Method:

1. Combine gula Melaka (palm sugar) & water in a pot & cook until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from fire & strain the syrup. Set aside to cool.
2. Mash the bananas & set aside.
3. Combine the rest of ingredients & blend until well mixed.
4. Add in gula Melaka syrup & mashed banana. Mix well.
5. Pour batter into a greased 8x8-inch pan (I used a bundt pan.)
6. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg C for about 1 hour.
7. Leave to cool completely before cutting.

Recipe adapted from Inspirasiku.

I'm linking this post to the Little Thumbs Up (March-2015 - BANANA) event organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by me, Faeez of BitterSweetSpicy.