Chai spiced fruitcake
A British essential for the holidays is definitely a boozy fruitcake, they are everywhere this time of the year. The whole left side of the bakery aisle in my local supermarket has been transformed in the most amazing selection of dried fruits and citrus peel.
I love dried fruits, I love booze and I certainly love cake but not fruitcake. Never been a fan of the traditional recipe and I reckon it’s because the ones I have tried in the past left me feeling underwhelmed, they were either too dry, too boozy or have a ratio of 95:1 fruit to cake, and that is just not the balance I am looking for.
So I have adapted a family recipe to share with you a lovely spiced fruitcake. It is based on my grandmother’s orange cake recipe which was always an amazing treat when I was growing up and I’ve packed it (a good balance) with fruits soaked in Amaretto and chai tea, a drink which I have felt in love with recently and it adds an amazing mix of spices.
Now as you can see by the pictures I lost my normal 20cm cake tin and had to use one somewhat bigger, It did not affect the taste but it looks better if you bake it on a 20cm cake tin before you start.
Chai Spiced Fruitcake
For the cake:
4 Chai tea bags
4 tbsp amaretto
4 tbsp thick cut orange marmalade
1 cup red seedless grapes, halved
75g citrus peel, chopped
75g dried cherries
75g dried cranberries
225g butter, room temperature
225g caster sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Zest of a lemon
225g plain flour, sifted
½ tsp baking powder
1tbsp cinnamon
For the icing:
400g icing sugar
200g softened butter
zest of 1 orange
Fruits to decorate
1. Make the chai tea by boiling 200ml of water and brew the bags. In the mean time Add the amaretto, marmalade, citrus peel and red grapes to the tea and soak overnight.
2. The next day preheat the oven to 160C and grease a 20cm round tin and line it with greaseproof paper. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Slowly add the eggs beating slowly after each addition then fold in the flour, cinnamon and lemon zest.
3. Drain the soaked fruit but don’t discard the juices. Add the fruit to the cake mixture and a couple tablespoons of the juice. Pour into the prepared tin and level the mixture, then bake for  around 1 hour. When the top starts to get golden stick a toothpick in and check when it comes out clean. Let it cool on a rack. 
4. While still warm poke the cake with a fork and soak with the rest of the amaretto and marmalade juice. Let it cool completely before taking it out of tin.
5. To make the icing beat all the ingredients together and cover the top of the cake using a palette knife.