Fruit cake recipe like Bettys

morganlefay

Bettys of Harrogate make a completely delicious walnut and ginger fruitcake, but it's expensive. I have been experimenting with making something like it myself but can't get it right. It has sultanas, ground almonds, walnuts, pineapple in it with lovely crystallised ginger and walnuts on top (I think I've got it all - I was given it as a present and have eaten it all now) maybe glace cherries too. It's very moist and not 'darkly fruity' like some fruit cakes. Has anyone got a recipe for a similar cake please ?

Kim_kim

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8020863/Baking-the-best-cakes-ever.html

That's the recipe for their ordinary fruit cake.

katkin

I'm always up for the challenge of reproducing shop bought favourites and eat-out food but find cakes the hardest to do due to all the "odd" commercial ingredients and methods.

The website lists the following.

Ingredients:
Glace cherries (14%) (cherries, glucose-fructose syrup, colour: anthocyanins),
egg,
sugar,
butter,
sultanas,
wheat flour (with calcium, iron, niacin, thiamin),
citrus peels (glucose-fructose syrup,
orange peel,
invert sugar syrup,
lemon peel, acidity regulator: citric acid),
glace pineapple (7%) (pineapple, sugar, glucose syrup, acidity regulator: citric acid),
walnuts (5%),
glace angelica (angelica, sugar, glucose syrup),
apricot jam (sugar, apricots, acidity regulator: citric acid), crystallised ginger (2%) (ginger, sugar),
sherry,
glaze (water, sugar, glucose syrup, gelling agent: pectin; acidity regulators: citric acid, calcium lactate; raising agent: E450(i); preservative: sorbic acid; colours: carotene, paprika extract; flavouring),
lemon juice,
almonds,
salt,
preservative: sulphur dioxide.

Best of luck! It would be great if you could post a pic of your results :T

Callie22

Looking at Kim Kim's link, and Katkin's ingredients list, I reckon that you could make the walnut and ginger cake following the directions for the fruit cake, but with a few switches. I'd imagine that in the factory they just have one basic recipe that they change a bit to get the different cakes. I'd keep the overall proportion of fruit the same but swap out the currants and raisins with the cherries, sultanas, candied peel, pineapple and walnuts (and possibly a bit of angelica) and soak them overnight in the sherry and citrus juices. Instead of dark brown sugar, use a light brown one, and instead of the treacle, use golden syrup. Leave out the spices, but add a pinch of salt to the flour (unless you're using salted butter). Definitely add the glycerine, which will keep the cake really moist.

I think the apricot jam in the ingredients list is used as the glaze - once the cake has cooled brush the top with some warmed jam and top it with some toasted walnuts and chopped crystallised ginger, and then brush those with the jam. This will give you the shiny effect without needing to replicate the commercial glaze.

VfM4meplse

Kim_kim wrote: »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8020863/Baking-the-best-cakes-ever.html

That's the recipe for their ordinary fruit cake.

Reading through the recipe....in my many years of cake knowledge, I have never come across adding glycerin as a home-baking ingredient. The tricks of the trade!

Kim_kim

http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/2366811-Betty-s-Fruit-Cake

Probably not the real one, but you never know.

Can I buy Betty's cakes anywhere apart from Betty's? Any supermarkets sell them?

Kim_kim

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Reading through the recipe....in my many years of cake knowledge, I have never come across adding glycerin as a home-baking ingredient. The tricks of the trade!

I thought glycerin was used in toiletries!
What sort of glycerin & where do you buy it for cooking?

VfM4meplse

Kim_kim wrote: »

I thought glycerin was used in toiletries!
What sort of glycerin & where do you buy it for cooking?

Any pharmacy will sell it in a small bottle (100-200ml) and it's suitable for use in a number of ways.

It's a humectant, tastes quite neutral, is used in royal icing for example to keep it soft and pliable whilst working with it. It just never occurred to me to stick it in the cake itself.

Pollycat

morganlefay wrote: »

Bettys of Harrogate make a completely delicious walnut and ginger fruitcake, but it's expensive. I have been experimenting with making something like it myself but can't get it right. It has sultanas, ground almonds, walnuts, pineapple in it with lovely crystallised ginger and walnuts on top (I think I've got it all - I was given it as a present and have eaten it all now) maybe glace cherries too. It's very moist and not 'darkly fruity' like some fruit cakes. Has anyone got a recipe for a similar cake please ?

You had me at walnut and ginger but then lost me at almonds, pineapple & glace cherries.

Good luck with getting the recipe right.

TravellingAbuela

Kim_kim wrote: »

Can I buy Betty's cakes anywhere apart from Betty's? Any supermarkets sell them?

I don't think Betty's sell their cakes anywhere but in their branches. They do, however, do mail order and if you spend over £50 (!!!!) p & p is free! Mind you, that would be easy to do if you were buying a few of the ginger and walnut cakes, as they are, I think, about £20 each!!

Their recipes are a closely guarded secret, apparently. Though there are many "copies" around. (I have a Fat Rascal copy recipe myself). Incidentally, a bakery in our town was selling "Fat Rascals" and ended up in dispute with Betty's and had to change the name!

Pollycat

TravellingAbuela wrote: »

I don't think Betty's sell their cakes anywhere but in their branches. They do, however, do mail order and if you spend over £50 (!!!!) p & p is free! Mind you, that would be easy to do if you were buying a few of the ginger and walnut cakes, as they are, I think, about £20 each!!

How much? :eek: