Dundee Cake

In honor of my Scottish heritage, I thought I would give a go at baking a traditional Scottish cake, called the

Dundee Cake

I recently learned about it, from a British magazine. It made me think of the all traditional Fruit cake, but I love the look of the decorative almonds on top. I did some collecting of different takes on the recipe, and came up with my own version. And so I think it will make a nice addition to the Christmas baking being eaten and given as  gifts. Oh ya, one more thing, I did cut costs on different ingredients.

¾ cup margarine

¾ cup brown sugar

3 tb. Marmalade

3 eggs

1 cup flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ cup ground almonds

1 heaping tsp. mixed spice ~~To make your own~~1 Tb. cinnamon, 1 tsp. coriander, 1 tsp. nutmeg, ½ tsp. ginger, ¼ tsp. allspice, ¼ tsp. cloves. Bottle up to use.

½ cup each of: currants, sultanas, chopped dates, glace cherries-halved

1 tb. molasses

1 tsp. rum extract

2 tsp. cream

½ cup blanched almonds

~~A Note about Blanched Almonds~~ I’ve been able to find whole natural almonds for a really good price compared to the blanched almonds that are sold in the baking isle. So I figured out an easy method to blanching my own almonds to get them pretty and pale looking for the top of this cake. Just bring about 2 inches of water to boil in a small pot. Place the almonds in, to boil for about 1-2 min. Remove with a slotted spoon into a bowl of cold water. The almond skin can now be easily pinched off.

 

Method à Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Grease an 8 inch round spring form pan. Beat the margarine and brown sugar, until light and fluffy. Add the marmalade. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in well after each one. Sift in the dry ingredients, and add the almonds. Stir to combine. Next, stir in the dried fruit. And then the molasses, extract, and cream. Once this is all well mixed, spoon into the pan, smooth the surface to place the blanched almonds in circles, all pretty like.

 

Bake for 1 ½ to 2 hours, until the cake is well risen and a toothpick comes our clean, when inserted into the cake middle. Cool for 10 min. before removing from pan.