Christmas Fruit Speculaas Spice Bundt Cake

As an alternative to a rich Christmas Cake, or the Dundee Cake I made recently I decided to make a lighter fruit cake and to use some Speculaas Spice to give an added Christmas time flavour.  Although I used a shop bought speculaas spice mix it is easy to make your own, and I will put the details for that below the ingredients for the cake.  That will make more spice than you need for the cake, but the remainder can be used for Speculaas cookies which are so traditional in the Netherlands and other countries in Europe.

I have made those cookies before, but will be doing another video soon, using the special moulds that I recently bought.

For this cake I decided to use just glace cherries, halved, and chopped mixed peel as the fruits, though really you can use any dried fruits you like.

The cake is simple to make and the size of the bundt tin doesn’t matter too much as they tend to narrow towards the base. So the cake mix will simply fill as much as it requires.  My bundt pan is a silicone one and is 24cm(9 inches) but a smaller one will work fine too making a taller cake. You could even just bake it in a 7 inch round cake tin which would be good too.

When the cake is baked and cooled it can be iced, if you wish, with as much or little icing as desired.  For mine I simply drizzled a little icing over the top for added effect and a little extra sweetness.

The cake itself turned out well and it really does taste so good.  The spices give it a lovely taste to add to the fruit which also adds a different texture.

This is an ideal alternative to those who want a special cake for Christmas, but one that is not so rich in fruit as a traditional Christmas Cake.

                                    Christmas Fruit Speculaas Spice Bundt Cake – Video
Ingredients:

• 250g (2 cups) cake flour
• 150g(1 stick + 3 scant tbsp)softened unsalted butter
• 100g(1/2 cup) caster or granulated sugar
• 4 medium eggs(large in USA)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp speculaas spice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 150g(2/3 cup) glace cherries, halved
• 100g(1/2 cup) chopped mixed peel

For Icing:

• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• a few drops of water.

For Speculaas Spice Mix:  this makes more than you need, use the remainder for cookies.

• 6 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground mace(or nutmeg)
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp white pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350 F
2. Place the cherries and peel into a bowl and use 1 tbsp of the flour to mix into it to coat all over.
3. Add the baking powder, speculaas spice and salt to the remaining flour and mix around to incorportate.
4. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy(I used my hand mixer).
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined.
6. Add the lemon extract and mix to combine.
7. Add the flour and slowly mix in until all combined into a thick batter.
8. Add the fruit and mix in, by hand, to incorporate.
9. Spoon the mixture into the bundt tin and spread around until level.
10. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean.
11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes, then tip out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
12. To make an icing mix the icing sugar with enough water to make a paste of dropping consistency and drizzle on top of the cake.