New Year Cake - Nuts, Fruits and Spices

Ok! With this post I finally finish the year 2010.

This cake "happened" on December, 31st. My daughters were on vacation, traveling with my parents. My husband was working, on duty until midnight. Alone at home, I wanted to eat  a cake and at the same time, do something nice to wait for the New Year.

I opened the fridge. A refrigerator after Christmas, more than that, a refrigerator post-Christmas trip, which was nearly empty. Looked here, looked there:

- "Uh, I have some packets of different types of nuts staring at me from the back of the first shelf. Some Brazil nuts, cashew nuts, peanuts, almonds and walnuts. Oh, there's also some dried apricots, raisins and dried cramberries. Great!"

- "Grab an electric mixer, let's have cake. Wait! I stil lhave a bit of brown sugar. So it would taste good with a pinch of cinnamon and ginger. And what if I add some brown butter to it? I think it would be very good.

It was like that. I gathered all these things and the cake came out. I soaked the dried fruits into an orange liqueur and ... done! My cake was perfect.

New Year's cake (or nuts, fruits and spices cake)

3eggs
1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cup mix of nuts and dried fruits soaked in orange liqueur - I used apricots, raisins and cramberries

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 cups cake flour

1 cup milk

200g brown butter 

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat the eggs at high speed until doubled in volume. Add the sugars by spoonfuls, stirring constantly, until mixture is white. Add the vanilla and the almond extract and continue beating. Add the cinnamon, the ginger and the mix of nuts. Reduce the mixer speed and proceed slowly adding the corn, alternately with the milk until everything is well incorporated. Add the melted brown butter. Stop the mixer and add the yeast. Mix gently with a spoon or spatula. Bake in moderate oven, 180 º C, in a greased and floured baking pan. Bake for 30 min. or until a toothpick stuck in the dough, get completely clean.

Também em www.labgastro.blogspot.com