I married a Eurasian in Singapore in the late 1980's. It was an exciting journey and I remembered my first Christmas, I had to bake a traditional rich cake.
It seems that any Eursian worth her salt must be able to bake a fruitcake that her husband and children will die for.
At first, I followed a faithful recipe from a book but over the years, I have come up with my own.
Now, my children will know that Christmas is around the corner whenever I bake fruit cake.
But the preparation of the fruit takes about a year and after the cake is baked it has to be soaked in rum or other alcohol from about one month up to a year before you eat the cake.
Good food takes time.
This is the recipe that I followed seriously when I started making the fruit cake
This recipe first appeared in a TODAY article written by Pauline D Loh on 2nd December 2003.
CHTRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE
Dried Fruit Mixture:
1 kg golden raisins
750g dark raisins/currants
250g dates, chopped
250g prunes, chopped
300g glace cherries, halved
125g apricots, quartered
125g candied ginger, chopped
125g mixed peel
3 medium green apples, grated
200g chunky jam
3 tablespoons grated lemon rind
185 ml lemon juice
500 g soft brown sugar (or 1 cup honey)
330ml/1.5 cup good liqueur
(Cointreau/grand Marnier/Southern Comfort)
Method:
1. Place all dry ingredients in the largest mixing bowl or stockpot you can find.
2. Add the juice and liqueur and allow to steep for at least 24 hours.
3. Stir occasionally, making sure the sugar is evenly distributed and dissolved
Cake Mixture:
500g butter
10 eggs
750g plain flour
Dried fruit mixture (above)
160g blanched almonds
15 red glace cherries, halved
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 150 deg C. Line base and sides of two 20 cm square or round cake tins with double layers of baking parchment
2. Cream butter; beat in eggs one at a time. Fold in flour gradually
3. Add fruit mix to batter and mix well to avoid pockets of batter
4. Divide cake mixture between pans and smooth the surface.
5. Decorate top with blanched almonds and glace cherries
6. Bake in slow oven for FOUR hours until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean. It will not be dry. In the last hour or so of baking, place a piece of aluminum foil on top of cake surface so the almonds and cherries do not burn.
Maturing the cake:
1. Make sure the cake is completely cooled before you wrap it in tin foil to mature.
2. Place well-wrapped cake in the bottom of your refrigerator.
3. Drizzle with liqueur every few days or according to your spirit tolerance.
Now I have modified the above recipe into my own below.
How to make
MAMAFESS FRUIT CAKE.
Right after Christmas, I will begin the process.
I will buy a bag of dried fruit(sultanas, currants,raisins,grace cherries,mixed peel). Usually I wil buy about 5 kg worth of fruit.
Sometime I will add walnut and other kinds of nuts.
Next, I will mix this bag of fruit with the following :
Spirit Mixture
1. Juice from three oranges and three lemons
2. 500 gm of molasses cane sugar (Billington's).
(This is the family secret to a great fruit cake. Do not use cane or brown sugar).
This unrefined Molasses sugar is a unique dark brown sugar. It has a richness and depth of flavour unmatched by any other sugar. It is unrefined sugar.
This means it is a natural product,which has been very simply produced with the aim of locking in rather than refining out the natural molasses of the sugar cane. It is this differences that gives unrefined sugar its superior flavour and natural colour.
3. One glass each of rum, brandy and whisky to soak the cake in .
Do not forget to pour a glass for yourself.
4. Zest of the orange and lemon from where you get the juice
Put all the fruit in a large cake mixing bowl and then pour over the spirit mixture. Once the fruits are blanded well with the spirit mixture, put all the fruits in large glass jar and seal well. I normally leave the fruit like this for over six months.
Allow children to lick clean the mixing bowl.
I always choose a day when I am free to make the cake with my children.
I need two sticks of butter,
500 gm of flour
(the actual amoung used depend on the my judgement).
ten eggs,vanilla essence, rose essence, almond essence, treacle, golden syrup, three different kind of jams, honey, all spice, ginger powder, nutmag powder, clove powder, baking soda and salt
1.Cream the butter.
2.Add the eggs one at a time beating well.
3.Make sure the mixture does not curdle, add a small amount of flour if it begins to do so.
4.Put the fruit in a large basin and sift half the dry ingredients (flour and spices) over the fruit.
5.Add the fruit mixture to the creamed butter mixture, breaking up lumps of fruit.
6.Sift in remaining dry ingredients with this until it is all used.
7. Add all the essence,liquid and jams.
I always feel like an artist at this stage as the amount I add in depend on my mood so every fruit cake I bake is unique.
Once the mixture is well mixed, pour into the prepared tin and shake the tin well to settle the mixture.
Give the tin one or two hard taps to break the air bubbles.
Cook in a slow oven for approximately four hours.
To prevent bruning, I normally cover the top with foil.
After four hours test to make sure it's cooked.
Poke a tootpick and see if it comes out clean.
Then remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin, covered with a clean cloth.
Remove from tin, wrap greaseproof paper and foil and seal in an airtight container.
Pour a small glass of rum over the cake every month until Christmas.
Cut fruit cake into small pieces and served.
Warning: You may get drunk from eating this fruit cake.
Atticus: I added in the eggs and stirred and stirred. It was massy but quite fun because I always seperate the egg yolk from the egg white. I poked a hole in the egg and turned it around and let the egg white fell out instead of the egg yolk. 
I took the fruit out of the jar and put it into the bowl. Atticus sprinkled the flour onto the fruit. After that, we added to the fruit cake mixture. 
