Chocolate Fruit Cake

Greetings friends!

How is everyone doing? I hope all is well and are in great festive spirit.

I apologise for the lack of posts and I have missed all of you. It's been a busy past few weeks and not that I haven't been cooking or eating - if you are a follower of my Instagram account (@Michael_Toa), you know that it's not the case. After spending hours in the kitchen during the day, I come home and still cook for myself most days, but nothing too elaborate... I mean something simple (and utterly delicious) like spaghetti with marmite.

I can't believe it's been over four months now since my move to the Cayman Islands to start my new job as a pastry cook. I have very much enjoyed this new role and I am constantly learning new recipes, techniques - and pushing myself and giving the best of my ability.

I work in the bakery section of the pastry department, baking many different types of fresh breads, rolls and loaves everyday. Funny thing that I once terrified of baking bread at home, and now it becomes a job that I love so very much. 

There had been days when it's extremely busy and things didn't go as planned, but I learn from the experience. And even when it's crazy busy I try to make it fun... I mean baking is fun and stress is just an unnecessary ingredient.

The island life is getting better I suppose. The weather is a bit cooler right now which I like. I made many new friends and found a group of people who are lovely to feed, so I'm always happy to have them around. 

I am spending my day off from baking, doing some home baking. I am finally getting into the Christmas spirit and as I'm typing this, I have Christmas carols playing and in the oven, my fruit cake is doing its thing and the house is smelling incredible. I use the same recipe every year from Nigella. I'll be sure to put the link to the recipe later. The fruit cake is unbelievably moist and I absolutely love it. In it you'll find raisins, currants, prunes, coffee liquor, orange peel, brown sugar, mixed spice and cocoa... All the good stuff.  The only alteration I made to the recipe is, instead of using honey, I used marmalade with ginger which gives another layer of sweetness, but also warmth to the fruit cake. 

The method to making the cake is also very easy, another reason to love. You don't need to steep the dried fruits days in advance - just put everything in a big pan and the heat along with the liquids will rehydrate the dried fruits for you.

It's still quite early in the morning, but I feel like after my coffee, I need some mulled wine too... :) I mean it is the season after all, right? 

Happy holidays my friends!

Chocolate Fruit Cake
Recipe by Nigella Lawson
Find the list of ingredients and instructions, here.