Dundee Cake

Photos courtesy of Kiley Melicker

Classic Scottish fruitcake, with a distinctive blanched almond patterned top. This recipe found it’s way across the pond via British ex-patriate & beloved grandmother, Joan Elizabeth Pollard. I find myself craving this cake a lot these days.

It’s traditional for Dundee Cakes to be aged a few days, or up to a couple of months. This recipe calls for it to be aged a week. Since I’m a nervous American who wasn’t ready to blindly assume that a week-old cake is a good thing, I tried it both fresh and aged. I found both ways to be really quite lovely.

Click here to read more about Joan Pollard and the Dundee Cake’s history.

Fresh will give you a buttery cake with a nice crust and a fluffy interior. An aged cake will mellow into a slightly crumbly cake with a flavor reminiscent of a fig newton.

Dundee Cake

Classic & historical Scottish fruitcake made with dried fruits, nuts and marmalade. Tradtionally aged before eating.
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Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup dried currants (4 oz)
  • 1/2 cup golden raisins (4 oz)
  • 1/4 cup blanched almonds, chopped (plus more for top, see below)
  • 4 oz orange marmalade, preferably with lots of peel
  • 2 cups All-Purpose Flour (10 oz)
  • 8 oz soft, unsalted butter (2 sticks, 1 cup)
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed (8 oz)
  • 1 each zest of lemon
  • 4 each eggs, room temperature
  • About 1 cup whole, or split, blanched almonds for decorating See note below

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 325 degees F. Grease and line a deep 8" round cake tin.
  • Combine the fruit, chopped nuts, and marmalade in a bowl. Sprinkle in about a TBSP of the flour (this is to help it not sink to the bottom of the cake while baking.) Set aside.
  • Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy, then beat in lemon rind.
  • Add the eggs to the creamed mixture, one at a time. (Note: The mixture has always curdled on me at this point. Don't panic – it bakes up fine.)
  • Sift the remaining flour over the mixture and fold in lightly with a spatula, then fold in the fruit and nut mixture.
  • Turn the mixture into the prepared cake tin, and make a slight hollow in the center with the back of a metal spoon. Arrange the almonds on top in a fun and decorative pattern.
  • Bake in preheated oven at 325 for a half hour, drop temperature to 300 and bake 1 more hour. Cake should feel very firm, and a skewer inserted in the center should come out clean. Leave in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
  • Either eat immediately with tea, or to mature the cake: Once cake is completely cool, wrap in parchment or plastic wrap, then wrap in aluminum foil. Leave it somewhere cool & dark. Let mature at least a week.

Notes

Blanched Almonds: these can be hard to find in a grocery store (or insanely expensive.) Almonds are really easy to blanch at home. Here’s how to do it.