Another excuse to give in to him is that I'm baking Dan's Chestnut Brownies again this weekend, and he didn't really like them. He certainly liked this cake, though, and so did I! You do need to like prunes, however, as the other ingredients don't hide the flavour of 300g of prunes - that's a lot of prune in each slice! As usual it was a simple recipe to follow, although toasting and chopping hazelnuts, and snipping sticky prunes into pieces with scissors was quite time consuming.
I had a slight worry that the cake batter was too stiff, bearing in mind the prunes would absorb liquid as the cake cooked, but decided to trust Dan, and not add any extra milk. I used a slightly larger cake tin but the cake still took 60 minutes to cook against the suggested time of 50 minutes in the recipe. While the cake was cooking I dithered about which alcohol to use to finish the cake as I didn't have any brandy; the choice came down to rum or Amaretto and in the end I went with the Amaretto - drizzling about 3 tablespoons over the hot cake, after pricking a few holes with a cocktail stick. This turned out to be a good choice - it really enhanced the nuttiness of the cake.
The finished cake was moist and sticky, and the nuts and prunes really stood out as dominant flavours. However, the brown sugar, nutmeg and a little cocoa, together with the liqueur, gave a subtle background flavour which was hard to identify. A really delicious cake which would make a good Christmas Cake if you want something lighter and moister than a traditional cake.
9 comments:
I too bookmarked this one to cook. I'm interested that you can really taste the prunes though as OH hates them. Oh dear.
Oh dear, Jude - I'm not sure what to suggest. I suppose you could try sultanas or raisins!
I was wondering about the packet of dried figs I have in the cupboard. They aren't so dark . .
Figs might be worth a try, if OH likes them. They might need a bit of soaking in something, as they are drier than prunes - tea perhaps?
This is on my 'to try' list too, when I've unpacked my cake tins! We love prunes, so am looking forward to trying it. Have missed reading your posts Su,e as we've not been online since mid September, so am catching up.
Good to see you back online, snowy - hope the move went well!
It looks really good but not on my to try list as I'm not keen on prunes! It does look like a good alternative Christmas cake though. Glad you've found something your husband likes!
It's on my list - I love cakes with prunes. Agen prunes are my all time favourite dried fruit. They trump those Californian ones any day!
This sounds lovely Suelle - the prune and chocolate cake I made was good, but I do like the idea of added hazelnuts. Amaretto sounds like a good choice, I would have thought it would go well with prunes. I was thinking about making the fig, almond and chocolate cake for Christmas, but you've got me dithering now.
Post a Comment