RECIPE | A festive fruitcake drenched in love

Chef Mynhardt Joubert is the custodian of Mynhardt’s Cathedral Cellar Kitchen in Paarl, where he's famous for his fine food renditions and for another initiative he started six years ago, his Christmas cake charity drive.

Each year he and his team bake hundreds of cherry-bejewelled festive fruitcakes — I can attest to the deliciousness because I've eaten  many slices  — for which he uses a much treasured old family recipe he learnt from his mother and grandmother growing up in the Free State.

“My mother and grandmother always encouraged me to be creative in the kitchen and Christmas for many South Africans is synonymous with fruitcake,” said Mynhardt.

The beauty of the cake is that by ordering one, your joy will be shared with those less fortunate, as money raised from the sale of the cakes goes to children supported by a small NPO, Helping Hands, in Montagu in the Cape, which feeds and supports them and will include buying school accessories for them for the 2023 school year.

Chef Mynhardt has shared his famous recipe so you can share the love with your family and consider gifting someone special with a cake this festive season.

CHEF MYNHARDT’S FESTIVE FRUIT CAKE

Ingredients:

400ml water

100g butter

200g soft brown sugar

400g dried fruit cake mix

250g dates

100g golden sultanas

200g raw whole almonds, roughly chopped

7.5ml (1 ½ tsp) bicarbonate of soda

3 eggs, beaten

20ml (4 tsp) vanilla extract

75ml brandy plus 75ml to drizzle

100g whole red glace cherries

100g whole green glace cherries

200g self-raising flour

5ml (1 tsp) salt

5ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140° C with the rack in the middle. Butter a deep 25cm cake tin, line it with 3 layers of baking paper and butter the top layer.
2. In a large saucepan, bring the water, butter, sugar, fruits and almonds to a boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Add the bicarb, mix through and remove from the heat. Leave to cool completely.
3. In another bowl, combine the eggs, vanilla and brandy and add it to the cooked fruit mixture. Add the cherries, flour, salt and cinnamon and mix well, making sure all the flour is incorporated. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 2 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (it can be moist, but not doughy).
4. Once the cake comes out of the oven, drizzle the remaining brandy over it and leave to cool in the tin. Store the cake in an airtight container and moisten liberally with brandy once a week to let it mature and allow the flavours to develop.  
5. Caring for you cake — to keep the cake moist, wrap it in baking paper, cover in clingwrap and store in an airtight container. After being ripened for a few weeks it is easy to freeze.

• The 1.9kg fruit cake sells for R500. Order via email cake@mynhardt.coza — the cakes can be couriered countrywide at an extra cost.