We’ve had many guests ask us about our Penghana Fruit Cake, so happy to share.
The recipe was given to me by one of my girlfriends some 20 years ago as the “three ingredient fruit cake” and the original recipe was:
1 kg mixed fruit
750ml coffee or chocolate flavoured milk
2 cups SR Flour
The method was to soak the fruit in the liquid for a minimum of 24 hours, add in the flour and bake for 2 – 2/12 hours in a low temperature oven.
At Penghana I wanted to give our guests a home made treat but with limited time for baking I started making these cakes and I started experimenting further by firstly adding cinnamon and spices.
One day when I was pouring down the drain (yes I admit down the drain) the pear juice from contents of a 3 kg tin of pear halves that we as part of the continental component of our breakfast fare, I thought………I wonder if this would work in the fruit cakes! ………..And it does, extremely well although I find it needs a little more flour added in. The juice from every batch of spiced up pears I make is now reserved for the next fruit cake. Actually the next two………they have become so popular I make 2 at a time and buy the mixed fruit in bulk.
Chatting with guests over time, many remember this original 3 ingredient fruit cake and I’ve been told the recipe also works with apricot nector, pineapple juice or even cold tea.
So now we have our own version: Penghana’s Guilt Free Fruit Cake and we love to tell our guests this cake has with no eggs, no dairy and no added sugar.
