Chocolate Fruit Cake Recipe
We’ve found ourselves in another lockdown. Sales and Marketing team member Meg has taken it upon herself to create a very special Christmas cake by putting a Lucocoa twist on the traditional Christmas fruitcake!
This is not a baking expedition for the lighthearted, or the impatient, however, it is a great way to spend a locked-down-Sunday, and does really make for a very special dessert on Christmas day! (Meg has also informed us that the cake also goes very well with a cheese plate… we’ll leave that down to you to test for yourselves!)
We have a new highlight on our Instagram page which takes you through all of the steps of this beast of a recipe with pictures of each part, so please do feel free to follow along there too!
Equipment:
Greaseproof paper
String
Cling film
Old newspaper
Ingredients:
1kg mix of dried figs, dates, and raisins (or really any mixture of dried fruit you would like but we prefer these!
1 Orange (you will need the zest and juice)
1 Lemon (try to get an unwaxed one, or if not, make sure you thoroughly wash it!)
150ml Cocoa infused spiced rum (+ more for the feeding and maturing process!) - We used cocoa shells that we left overnight in spiced rum and this worked wonderfully!
250g Raw, organic coconut oil.
200g Unrefined, organic coconut sugar (available on our online shop and instore)
140g Coconut flour
100g Ground almonds
½ tsp Baking powder
2 Teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ Teaspoon ground cloves (we had to use 4 whole cloves because we could not for the life of us find ground ones! We’re just going to say that the person who gets a whole clove in their slice is lucky…)
100g Chopped almonds
50g Desiccated coconut (unsweetened)
4 Eggs
100g Lucocoa chocolate (we used 50g Nutmeg+Cinnamon chocolate and 50g Orange chocolate)
If you want to traditionally ice your cake you will need ready rolled Marzipan and ready rolled icing (we suggest buying these now as they keep for ages and every year we leave it till when we’re ready to ice our cakes and they’re always sold out in all major supermarkets!).
Method:
Put all of the dried fruit in a LARGE cooking pan. Wash and dry your orange and your lemon. Grate the zest of both and add to your dried fruit. Now squeeze the juice from both the lemon and the orange into the fried fruit mix. Pour over 150ml of your cocoa infused spiced rum and your 250g coconut oil, then add your coconut sugar and set over a medium heat.
Once the mixture has come to a gentle boil (be careful not to boil for too long or the alcohol will all cook off!) lower the heat, add your Lucocoa chocolate of choice (we highly recommend our limited edition Cinnamon+Nutmeg Haitian chocolate/Orange Haitian chocolate!) and leave for another 5v minutes so that the chocolate can melt.. Once this is complete, give the mixture a good stir to make sure the chocolate is combined and tip the pan’s contents into a large bowl (preferably not a plastic one because the mixture will still be quite warm).
Turn on the oven (for fan ovens, set to 130C). Line a deep 20cm cake tin with a double layer of greaseproof paper then wrap a double layer of newspaper around the outside – tie with string to secure (be sure the dampen the string with water and wring it out first!). This step is hard to explain in writing but is very important to making sure the cake cooks correctly so please see the ‘Christmas Cake’ highlight on our instagram stories images!) below to see what we mean!
Now time for your dry ingredients: Combine your coconut flour, ground almonds, baking powder, chopped almonds, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Then mix in your four eggs. Mix well, then add your wet fruit mixture. This is most definitely an arm workout! Make sure both wet and dry ingredients are very well combined.
Pour the mixture into your designated baking tin (the one with the greaseproof paper in it and newspaper around it! Smooth the top, then place in the middle of the oven for two hours (yes, TWO HOURS!)
Take the cake out of the oven after what feels like an eternity! Immediately poke holes in the cake (we used a chopstick) and pour a couple of tablespoons of your cocoa infused rum over the hot cake (this smells absolutely delicious!).
Once the cake has cooled entirely (this will take a while) peel off the greaseproof paper, then wrap tightly in cling film.
Store the cake in a cool, dry place. Once every two weeks, take the cake out, and ‘feed’ it with more cocoa infused rum. Do not feed the cake for one week before you ice it (so that it wont be too moist to ice).
If you want to traditionally ice the cake, heat two tablespoons of smooth apricot jam so that the consistency is runny. Brush this all over your Christmas cake, then very carefully place your ready-rolled marzipan over the cake and press down to secure. Then do the same for the ready rolled icing.