Cake

Well, this is a bit radical! At least it is to me. I’ve just made a cake in the microwave. I was sort of vaguely aware you could do this, and have seen microwaveable baking trays. But it had never really occurred to me to try it. But tonight I wanted to make a gluten-free fruit cake, low-sugar, to have for breakfasts with some soaked dried fruit and Greek yoghurt. I googled ‘gluten free fruit cake recipe’ and the first one I found was this microwave one. It’s soooo easy, and as you melt the butter, that makes it even easier. I’ve just tried it, and it’s lovely! I tweaked the recipe a bit to suit what I’ve got (it said 1kilo of dried fruit but I could only find about 500g, it said a tin of crushed pineapple, and I left that out altogether, and I added a lump of muscovado sugar, there was none at all in the recipe, but I thought that it might need it, what with not having the pineapple in). So, here it is:

Gluten-free Microwave Fruit Cake

500g dried fruit - matters not what sort I guess, I used raisins, goji berries (yeah, I know!) and chopped dates, simply cos that’s what I could find.
A good glug of orange flower water (or a few drops of orange essence and almond essence – I didn’t have those).
125g butter
A medium lump of muscovado sugar - about the size of a Cooks matchbox perhaps, I wasn’t really paying much attention.
1 tsp nutmeg (or a good grating)
2 tsp mixed spice (or whatever cake spices you fancy)
4 eggs
125g ground almonds
1 tsp xanthum gum
1 tsp bicarb
1 tsp cream of tartar
200g gluten free plain flour

Put the dried fruit and the orange flower water or essences in a bowl and add 2 tblsps water. Microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Melt the butter and the sugar.
Beat the eggs.
Mix everything together well in a big bowl.
Put some greaseproof paper in a big glass or pottery oven dish (I used a square lasagne dish) and dollop the cake mix in.
Wodge the top down as flat as poss, stand the dish on an upside down bowl in the microwave and cook on high for 15 minutes.
Remove and when it's a bit cooled, take it out and put it on a wire rack to finish cooling. Try not to eat it all while it’s still warm.

I am going to make some more microwave cakes; I’ll let you know how I get on. It’s all a bit 70’s – I’ll be fonduing next!!