Chocolate fruit cake for Christmas

[Becky]

I baked my Christmas cake at the weekend! I've gone for a chocolate fruit cake from Nigella Lawson's 'Feast' recipe book. Here's the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chocolate-fruit-cake-recipe/index.html

The only change I made to the recipe was to add milk chocolate chips for that extra bit of decadence (as if there wasn't already enough!!). With hindsight I would have used dark chocolate chips because the cake was actually quite sweet. I made a mini version of the cake by scooping a little of the mixture into a small ovenproof dish and baking it - just so that I could taste it before it matures. The flavour is predominantly chocolate orange which is gorgeous!! Because the cake is quite sweet I might feed it with rum rather than something sweeter like Tia Maria or Cointreau.

Just got to decide how to decorate it now!

 

[MyDigitalpoint]

Thanks for this great share Becky!

I can't figure out a Christmas celebration without a Fruit Cake, but I never thought of a chocolate fruit cake, and adding dark chocolate chips make it even more appealing to me.

Agree with you, rum or brandy might be a better option to feed it with coffee liqueur, as suggested in this recipe, or any other sweet liqueur.

Have to put hands on baking it this weekend

 

[Christine Mlinek]

For feeding, have you thought of Disaronno ? Italian almond flavored liqueur?
------------
I made one fruitcake in my life, and it was not a good one, but I sure fed it plenty of rum to disguise the taste.. LOL

 

[MissPotato]

It's my first Christmas away from home and on my own, with my boyfriend. I think it's going to be a nice tradition to start baking fruit cakes this year. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Annette]

Thanks for sharing this. I never had a chocolate fruit cake before and this one sounds tasty. I love dark chocolate so I will go with that. I will have to think about the liquer though. I like rum and the brandy sounds good too.

 

[MyDigitalpoint]

For feeding, have you thought of Disaronno ? Italian almond flavored liqueur?
------------
I made one fruitcake in my life, and it was not a good one, but I sure fed it plenty of rum to disguise the taste.. LOL

I tried once to feed a fruit cake with Sambuca, another Italian but aniseed-flavored liqueur, however I think that these kind of liqueurs are very sweet and make the cake have a honey-like consistency.

However those Italian liqueurs are really tasty when it comes to include them in baking recipes.

 

[Annette]

I tried once to feed a fruit cake with Sambuca, another Italian but aniseed-flavored liqueur, however I think that these kind of liqueurs are very sweet and make the cake have a honey-like consistency.

However those Italian liqueurs are really tasty when it comes to include them in baking recipes.

That sounds good. I need to see about using something like that.

 

[Becky]

For feeding, have you thought of Disaronno ? Italian almond flavored liqueur?
------------
I made one fruitcake in my life, and it was not a good one, but I sure fed it plenty of rum to disguise the taste.. LOL

I'm not keen on Disaronno, so I wouldn't want to buy it in as it wouldn't get drunk! Rum however is a different story...

 

[Annette]

I like rum and most of the fruit cakes I have seen have that in it. I would like to try something different. I hope I can make a good fruit cake that people will actually eat and not pass off to someone else.

 

[TheViper]

There isn't a way to go wrong whenever you have chocolate in the recipe. I really love fruitcake and find myself making it all year long. This recipe looks really good and I can't wait to try it out. Maybe this will turn out to be my new favorite thing to eat?

 

[Annette]

It may become my favorite as well. Then again I like any dessert with chocolate in it. I will eat others, but I can't resist the chocolate.

 

[andrew172]

I would never have thought of mixing chocolate and fruit cake but I must admit, this sounds pretty delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

 

[Annette]

Can't wait to make this for Christmas. I think it's going to be a hit with my family. I know they aren't very fond of fruit cake, but I think they will change their minds with a chocolate fruit cake. I mean who can resist a chocolate fruit cake.

 

[florence]

I read about fruit cake " Dark Fruit Cake", that you should bake for 2 days and after baking to wait for 3 weeks.
Is it the same? This cake is usually baked for Christmas.
I wonder, is it really delicious?

 

[Becky]

Quick update on the cake - I decided to make my own marzipan this year! Here's the recipe: Zesty Orange Marzipan (some of the comments said it was too wet and they had to add a lot of icing sugar, but I used medium sized eggs and it was perfect - didn't need to add anything)

I think the orange flavour will work really well with the chocolate and fruit. Once it has dried out on the cake I'll decorate it with Royal Icing (white piped roses hopefully).

Here are some photos of the marzipan (you can see the flecks of zest):

I've never been a massive fan of marzipan myself but this stuff is yummy! I've got a bit left over so I'm going to use it in a Plum & Marzipan Tarte Tatin

 

[Christine Mlinek]

lookin' good Becky!

 

[1inamillion]

For feeding, have you thought of Disaronno ? Italian almond flavored liqueur?
------------
I made one fruitcake in my life, and it was not a good one, but I sure fed it plenty of rum to disguise the taste.. LOL

I made a fruit cake once and it did not turn out good. It was crummy and flat and the taste was not nice , although I pour a lot of rum all over it but instead of tasting good it tasted awful.

 

[rosacrux]

Seems a nice cake. I do not like fruit cake too much and despite I have tried several recipes for it, and none has satisfied me. I will try this chocolate fruit cake, looks delicious.