One of the most popular of all the wedding cakes, the rich fruit wedding cake is a traditional offering that has been commonplace at wedding for many years. This article takes a closer look at the fruit wedding cake and also provides a simple recipe for those amateur cake makers among you.
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Fruit Wedding Cake
Although not as popular as it once was, the fruit wedding cake (or spice wedding cake) is still to be found at many weddings up and down the country. Whilst couples are shying away from a full rich fruit wedding cake these days, many are still choosing to incorporate a tier or two of it into their overall cake design.
Typically comprising raisins, sultans, currants, peel and cherries along with an amount of suitable spices (nutmeg/cinnamon etc.), many of you will be familiar with the rich fruit taste as it's a near identical recipe to that used in traditional Christmas cakes.
The Fruit Cake Advantage
There are a number of advantages for plumping for a spice / rich fruit wedding cake:
It tastes great, and is particularly popular with older guests.
The fruit wedding cake is one of the densest cakes around and makes a fantastic bottom tier – it can support lighter cakes with ease and also many weighty pillars or ornaments.
It is a ‘neat’ cake – no, we’re not going all hip on you, what we mean is that it cuts well, and as a result a 10 inch tier of fruit wedding cake will provide more servings than a like for like tier of sponge cake.
It is a traditional wedding cake and if you follow the view that you should keep the top tier of the cake and eat it as a couple on your one year anniversary, then a fruit wedding cake (with the right preservatives added) will allow you to do this.
Finally, if you want to help hit your target of five portions of fruit and veg a day, then a fruit wedding cake can help you on your way (please note that we have just made this point up, so please do not quote us on this in any way - but who knows, it sounds good and could be true!).
Fruit Wedding Cake Design & Decoration
As fruit cakes are easy to cut, they can be crafted into virtually any shape you desire, albeit their traditional routes lend themselves to square and round cakes the best. For a modern twist, individual fruit wedding cakes is always an option.
Perfect for use in tiers, just remember to place fruit cakes below any non-fruit cakes in stacked or pillared designs to prevent any accidents.
Marzipan and sugarpaste or royal icing are the most popular decorations added to fruit wedding cakes, with an abundance of other accoutrements often adorning the exterior. Flowers, edible toppers and sweets, ribbons and coloured icing are some of the most popular, though some couples will choose to opt for a relatively plain white-iced cake and let the traditional nature of fruit and spiced cakes come to the fore.
A Simple Fruit Wedding Cake Recipe
There are a whole host of recipes and methods for baking a rich fruit wedding cake available on the web - here is our simple recipe which should provide sufficient for an 8 inch cake. For larger cakes, simply multiply the ingredients accordingly, and we'd suggest producing a small trial cake prior well in advance of the big day to test things out.
Sift 100g of plain flour and a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl. Stir in 125g of wholewheat flour, 2 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp of mixed spice, 1/2 tbsp of cinnamon and 100g of soft brown sugar.
Rub in 100g of butter/margarine. Stir in 225g of mixed dried fruit of your choice (currants, raisins, sultanas, cherries etc), 50g of chopped mixed peel, 2 beaten eggs, 2tbsp of marmalade and mix thoroughly. Add a little milk if the resultant mixture is a little too stiff.
Grease an 8 inch cake tin, line with greaseproof paper, then spoon in the mixture.
Place in a pre-heeted oven (at 160°C, 325°F, Gas Mark 3) and bake for around 90 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. TIP - Cover the top of the cake rich fruit wedding cake with greaseproof paper if it goes too brown during cooking.
Remove from oven, take out of the tin then leave to cool on a wire rack, before storing in an airtight tin before decorating.
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Recommended Reading: For those of you wanting to find out more, we've a whole host of other wedding cake articles on our site packed full of expert information and helpful advice, not to mention our online wedding directory that's filled with cake makers, cake topper designers and more. For friendly tips and helpful advice take a look at our wedding cakes & catering forum, or why not check out the 'pages & websites you may like' below.
