The flavour of your fruit cake is based on the ingredients you use and how you prepare your dried fruits before baking. I make it a point to taste all the dried fruits and the alcohol before adding it to my mix. Hahaha lol, I know what you are thinking now. Yes I am normally drunk by the time I finish soaking the fruits. I have had a lot of requests related to fruit cakes, So I decided to share with you How I soak my dried fruits before baking my fruit cakes.

How to soak dried fruits for a fruit cake

You will need

400g mixed dried fruit

100g black currants

50g chopped dried prunes

25g mixed peel

50g cranberries

1 cup rum

2 cups brandy

3 cups fortified wine

Air tight jar or any container of choice.

Method

1. Chop and large dried fruits you use, in this tutorial I used dried prunes.
2. Mix all the dried fruits in a large bowl
3. Pour all the fruits in an air tight container
4. Pour your rum, brandy and fortified wine or sherry.
5. Close the lid and leave to fruits to soak

Soak my dried fruits for 3 months or more. the longer the better. If you are pushed for time then you can soak the fruits overnight or boil the fruits in the alcohol.

You can put any dried fruit combination in your fruit cake depending on the flavor and texture you are after.

The supermarket mixed fruit bags are good enough in most cakes but I find they do not always have the right proportions of the fruits I like, so I add my favorites to it.

The flavor of your cake is based on the fruits and alcohol mix you use. Choose the best flavored alcohol and the best quality fruits.

I use this mix to bake my Christmas cake, dutch plum cake, Easter cake and wedding fruit cakes

I only soak these dried fruits for my fruit cakes. The rest of the fruits and nuts will be added when baking.

Check out this next tutorial on how to mix and bake the fruit cake