Mishy’s Easy Eggless Fruitcake

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A wonderfully moist, fruity cake perfect for the festive season

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FOR THE FRUIT CAKE (makes two 20cm fruit cakes)

385g condensed milk (one tin)
350g rama or stork margarine
45ml vegetable oil
400ml water
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
240g bought fruit cake mix (raisins, currants and sultanas)
50g cranberries (optional)
75g candied citrus peel (optional)
200g glace cherries, a mix of green and red
200g pecan nuts, toasted
360g cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

METHOD:

Combine your wet ingredient mixture: Place the margarine, oil and water into a bowl and het it on the stove until all the margarine has melted and everything is well combined, and comes to a gentle simmer. There is no need to boil this aggressively, as this is not a boiled fruitcake recipe. Don’t be alarmed if it looks slightly split – you are combining water and the oils from the margarine, so naturally they will not mix.
Add in the condensed milk and vanilla: Once the mixture has come to a simmer, add in the condensed milk and vanilla essence. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.
Prepare your cake tin and oven: Whilst the wet ingredients are cooling, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Grease and line the base and sides of two 20cm cake tins with baking paper and set aside. I have baked this in a square tin, round tins and even a Nordicware Snowflake Pan. If you are using a pan like the snowflake pan, where you cannot line it with baking paper, brush the pan thinly with softened butter, making sure there are no large clumps of butter. Then dust with about a tablespoon or two of cake flour to coat the entire pan. Ensure to flip the tin over and tap out the excess flour so only a thin coating remains – otherwise the flour remains raw as your cake bakes and looks messy.
Toast your pecan nuts: Toasting nuts really unlocks their natural oils and flavour. So for maximum flavour impact, I suggest you do not skip this step. Simply place the nuts on a baking tray and toast for 5 – 8 minutes, keeping a close eye on them.
Prepare the fruit: Use a bigger bowl than you think you will need, as everything is going to get added to this bowl. To ensure the cherries look pretty when you cut into the cake, I reserve about 5 red and five green to be thrown whole into the mix, then cut the rest in half. To these cherries, add the fruit mix, cranberries, citrus peel and toasted pecan nuts.
Add in the dry ingredients: Add in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda to the fruit mixture and coat the fruit and nuts in the flour.
Add in the wet ingredients: Pour a quarter of the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Do this three more times until all the wet mixture is used up. The batter is quite liquid so do not be alarmed by this, just ensure you have mixed in the flour well and there are no streaks in the batter.
Bake the cake: Pour the batter into your cake tins and bake for 25 – 35 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Decorate and enjoy: Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before removing and letting it cool completely. Then dust with a bit of icing sugar and decorate with seasonal cherries, for festive flare.