Back in the day Christmas cakes and pudding were often made using lard, but that’s not easy to get these days and most recipes use butter instead. This cake substitutes copha for lard. I haven’t made it, but think I might do it next year as it sounds interesting.
Yes, this is a fruit cake, but it’s only October so I’m not suggesting it should be your Christmas Cake. It won’t be long before it’s time to get the Christmas recipes out and make the pudding and cake, but think there’s a few more weeks before you need to do that . Sadly these days I only make fruit cakes at Christmas, but really they’re an easy cake to make, they keep well and ingredients like the pineapple and carrot in this recipe add extra flavour. Worth making all year round really……
I’ve lost count of the number of fruit cakes recipes I’ve read over the years, but this is the first one I’ve seen with a cup of coconut in it. It could be an interesting change and as it’s a quick to make, it’s probably worth trying out.
Finding cake recipes that are gluten free is easier in 2019 than it was back in the 1980s, so this fruit loaf was probably very unusual and a joy to find back then. It has the added bonus that it keeps for 2 months and can be frozen – although it wouldn’t be cheap to make. Then what gluten free product is cheap?
Swiss Chocolate Roll is probably the best known chocolate roll. This is just a bit of a step up from that with brandy soaked black cherries adding a bit of a kick. Possibly not one for the children……………
My apologies for the picture with this recipe, Mum cut the picture in half so it’s the best I could do. I thought it worth putting in to show the texture of the cake – the banana is quite chunky. That together with the wholemeal flour and coffee makes it quite a different banana cake.
Traditionally Christmas cakes and puddings were made months before Christmas. I don’t ever seem to be that organised and intend to do mine tomorrow. It made me realise that it’s also time to hunt out some Christmas recipes for you. I’m surprised this one is titled ‘Traditional Christmas Cake’ as the old, traditional, recipes don’t have butter and definitely don’t have chocolate. It’s a much more modern version.
