Marmalade is what sets Hairy Bikers Dundee cake apart, along with mixed dried fruit, ground almonds and a splash of whisky. Those go into the British Classics version, which gives 10 slices at 520 calories each across 3 hours 35.
Arranging the blanched almonds in circles on top is a job Si and Dave call “strangely satisfying”. And the marmalade is not a garnish, since Keiller’s of Dundee were a marmalade company before they ever baked this cake.
Double line the tin with baking paper, since the dried fruit is sugary and two hours at 150℃ is a long time. That paper is the difference between a cake that bakes evenly and one with burnt edges around a raw middle.
Hairy Bikers Dundee Cake
Description
Dundee cake is a slow bake rather than a hard one, so the oven does most of the work over two low hours. Ring the top with blanched almonds before it goes in, then dust it with granulated sugar once it has cooled.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Prepare the tin: Preheat the oven to 150°C/Fan 130°C/Gas 2, then grease a 20cm loose-bottomed tin. Line it with a double layer of baking paper, right up the sides.
- Cream the base: Beat the butter and sugar for 3 to 4 minutes in a food processor or with electric beaters, until very light and fluffy.
- Add marmalade and eggs: Mix in the marmalade for a few seconds, then add the beaten eggs slowly, one at a time, beating well after each one.
- Bring in the dry ingredients: Add the flour, ground almonds and mixed spice, then mix slowly until it is well combined.
- Fold in the fruit: Fold in the dried fruit and halved cherries with a large metal spoon, then add the whisky or milk and mix it through.
- Top with almonds: Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth the surface, then arrange the blanched almonds in neat circles on top.
- Bake low and slow: Bake for 90 minutes to 2 hours, until the cake is well risen, firm and golden brown.
- Test it: Push a skewer into the centre to check, since it should come out clean when the cake is ready.
- Cool it: Cool the cake in its tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and leave it on a rack.
- Finish: Sprinkle the top with the granulated sugar once it is completely cold, then store it in a tin.
FAQs
Will it keep like a Christmas cake?
It will not, and the book is blunt about that. Si and Dave say to keep it in a tin and eat it within four or five days, which is short for a fruit cake.
A Christmas cake gets fed with spirits over weeks, while this one has 2 tbsp of whisky and nothing after baking. If you want a fruit bake ready the same afternoon, their eccles cakes take 45 minutes start to finish.
Does the dried fruit need soaking first?
No, and that is one of the things that separates it from other British fruit bakes. The 400g of mixed dried fruit goes in dry, straight from the packet, and takes up moisture from the batter as it bakes.
Their bara brith does the opposite, because the same weight of fruit sits overnight in strong tea before it goes near flour. So do not borrow that step for this one, since extra liquid here would leave you with a heavy damp middle.
Can I leave the whisky out?
You can, because the recipe offers milk as the swap in the same line as the whisky. Use 2 tbsp either way, as the liquid is there to loosen a very stiff batter rather than to flavour it.
Whisky adds a faint warmth behind the spice, though nobody eating it will name the ingredient. Milk changes nothing about the bake time or the texture, so it is a clean swap for anyone avoiding alcohol.
When is it actually done, given the bake runs 90 to 120 minutes?
The window is 90 to 120 minutes, and where you land depends on your oven rather than on the recipe. Start checking at 90 minutes, then push a skewer into the middle and pull it straight back out.
If it comes out clean the cake is done, and if there is wet batter on it give the cake another 15 minutes. The top should be firm and golden brown by then, since a low oven browns slowly rather than all at once.
Do the almonds go on before or after baking?
Before, and this trips people up. The 60g of blanched almonds get pressed into the raw batter in circles, so they toast to a deep colour during the bake.
The teaspoon of granulated sugar is the opposite, because that goes on after the cake has cooled completely. For something quicker on the same tea table, their ginger and treacle scones are done in 40 minutes.
