Baking a rich fruit cake

Asked on 12 May 2018 by Sally Wade

Please can you help with some advice for a wedding cake I am making for my son?

I have just made a 10" round 4" deep fruit cake using Delia's Rich Fruit cake recipe and scaling up the ingredients. I lined the tin with double greaseproof paper, bottom and sides, put one round of foil (shiny side down) on the bottom & wrapped the whole tin in double newspaper collar.

I cooked it for 5 hrs by which point it was cooked in most places but the centre remained slightly moist as a skewer came out sticky (cleanish but moist/sticky). I seem to have a 'fast' oven. I think the cake may be uncooked in the centre so I am tempted to repeat the cake in order to avoid this problem. Do you suggest using a rose nail in the centre to help distribute the heat internally or would you suggest something else?

Thanks for your help.

Lindsey, Food Editor replied

Hello,

Ovens do vary but we always take a peek at a rich fruit cakes after 4 hours baking and then depending on how its looking we would check if every 30 - 15 minutes after that.

Did you cover the cake with a double layer of parchment (not touching the cake)? Covering the cake stops the top of the cake getting too dark whilst the mixture cooks through and the sugar slowly caramelises.

We do not test with a skewer because the moist sticky fruit is deceptive. We go by look, smell and feel. The cake should be an even deep brown colour, it will be slightly raised and feel quite firm in the center when pressed gently and the aroma of the sweet spicy mixture will fill the room.

This recipe is baked on a lower shelf using gas or conventional heat (140 degrees) but if you use a fan oven you can use any shelf but reduce the temperature to 120 – 125C. (i.e. if your oven is vey fast I would choose 120C).

We haven’t tested any of Delia’s cakes using rose / flower nails to speed up the cooking.

I hope that helps.

Kind regards

Lindsey