Christmas Fruitcake with Papaya

While regularly compared to a brick or doorstop, the traditional fruitcake has been around for hundreds (maybe thousands) of years. It must be doing something right! This one is chock full of fruit with just enough cake to hold it together nicely. And it's incredibly easy to make!

Ingredients:

2.2 lbs (1 kg) dried fruit and nuts

2 cups brewed tea

1/3 cup orange juice

5 or 6 drops angostura bitters (optional)

2 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

1/2 cup apple jelly (for optional glaze)

1 tbsp water

So, the dried fruit and nuts is a mix that's really left up to you...what do you like and what's in your pantry? This time I used a small container of mixed citrus peel, chopped walnuts, sultana raisins, dried cranberries, glazed red cherries and for something a little different... dried papaya instead of my usual candied pineapple! Just use a cup or two of each ingredient until you have the required 2.2 lbs. of dried fruit and nuts.

Mix this with the tea, orange juice and angostura bitters then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next day mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and allspice together and add to the fruit mix. Stir until combined then pour (more like glop!) into a parchment lined 8 X 8" baking pan. It will be packed to the brim! Add more fruit on top if you like.

Then bake at 320°F for 2 hours or until a cake tester comes out clean. Turn off the oven and leave the cake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool the fruitcake completely in the pan on a rack.

While the cake is cooling you could choose to glaze it. Simple heat apple jelly with 1 tbsp of water until liquified then brush over the fruitcake. Rum or brandy could be brushed on it too.