Mixed fruit, I have Alot to use

popeye333, Sep 12, 8:33pm
Was given 7 kilos of mixed fruit and 4 kilos of glace cherries.

Ive already made 8 dozen fruit mince pies and one christmas cake. And thats only taken 1.5 kilos.
I will be making more of both, but really need some ideas to use it all up.

If I had room in the freezer Id pop it in there but we are struggling to make enough room for the sheep thats coming before christmas.
kiwitrish, Sep 12, 8:47pm
How about Christmas puddings?
ruakokopatuna, Sep 12, 9:11pm
Why do you need to make it up in a hurry?, it will keep for years after the best before date, on the shelf.
nauru, Sep 13, 2:20am
Lucky you popeye. It should all keep OK without freezing anyway. You could always make up more mincemeat which seems to keep forever. I used the last of my more than 3 year old batch the other day. Must admit there was booze in there too so that helps to keep it. If you feel up to it, you could make Christmas puddings to give as gifts (I do this) and they are so easy cooked in the crockpot (if you have one), they also keep well from one year to another too. You could also marinate some of the fruit for next years Christmas cakes. My son started marinating fruit for his Trinidad Christmas cake 2 years ago. Made a cake last year (which was superb) and there was half the mix left. It's been in the fridge and I gave it a stir when I was there last week, yum, so I'm looking forward to tasting this years cake which will be wonderful.
muffin52, Sep 13, 2:50am
What is a Trinidad Christmas cake please?
nauru, Sep 13, 3:27am
It's a traditional cake made in Trinidad called Trinidad Black Cake, which is a very dark cake made with fruit which is marinated in spirits. Marinating time varies with each recipe, lots to choose from on google, all a little different in some way or another. The one I have is started the previous January and is an old Trinidadian family recipe which was given to me when we lived there many years ago.
justme17, Sep 13, 4:31am
Christmas cake or steam puddings
popeye333, Sep 13, 4:02pm
Yes I am lucky being given it all. its a nice problem lol.

I dont use spirits in my baking. we dont drink and its something I dont know if others do or not.

Have all the standard things like cakes, pies and puddings sussed. Its just finding something different to make.

I will have to google away later and see what I can do.

Something that just popped into my head is White Christmas, it will be sightly different if I use full on fruit mix.

I dont think the fruit mince I make would last long. It has grated apple in it. Mind you it might ferment lol

Thanks everyone
cgvl, Sep 13, 6:24pm
popeye on here somewhere is a fruit cake I make regularly for Xmas and I'm sure it uses around 2 to 3 kilos of fruit. I soak the fruit in Orange juice for a couple of days as well.
Will see if I can find it for you. Otherwise what about a fruit square aka fly cemetery.
cgvl, Sep 13, 6:40pm
Here you go: Louise's Rich Xmas Cake
1.4kg mixed fruit
150-200g glace cherries
125mls Orange juice or whisky or brandy (I usually just cover the fruit with a mixture of whisky and orange juice so closer to 500mls)
400g butter
225g sugar (white or brown)
1tsp each of lemon and orange rinds
1Tbsp extra of orange juice
1tsp of vanilla essence
¼ tsp almond essence
2Tbsp Marmalade (I like ginger)
125g dark chocolate (I use 70%+)
4 large eggs size 7 or 8
350g plain flour
1tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp each of nutmeg and mace 9I use ½ tsp nutmeg)
Soak fruit in orange juice for at least 24 hours.
Cream butter and sugar, stir in rinds, extra orange juice, essences and marmalade.
Melt chocolate, cool and stir into mixture. Add eggs. Sift dry ingredients and fold in with fruits.
Spoon into prepared tin (says 8" but I tend to use 2x 8" tins) level top.
Cook for 4-4½ hours at 140C.
It does make a very deep cake, hence I do 2 cakes.
If you are only going to soak fruit for 24 hours use 125mls liquid otherwise it will be a very wet cake.
sla11, Sep 13, 6:43pm
Share some of your good fortune maybe?
amasser, Dec 26, 3:02am
Preserve it in brandy.