Dried fig-and-apple fruit cake

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“All that fruit makes for a beautifully moist cake. If you have the chance to bake it in vine leaves, please do – you’ll get a great crust.”- Abigail Donnelly

Ingredients

6 vine leaves
330 g flour
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t bicarbonate of soda
1 cup vegetable oil
150 g caster sugar
200 g brown sugar
3 free range eggs
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced into 2 cm cubes
8 dried figs, chopped
1 t vanilla extract
100 g pecans, finely chopped

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 20 cm cake tin with baking paper. Line the tin with the vine leaves, shiny side down, folding them over the edge slightly and overlapping so the tin is fully lined.

2. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Beat the oil and sugar for 3 minutes in a stand mixer using the whisk attachment until the sugar has dissolved slightly. Add the eggs and beat for 5 minutes or until the mixture is pale, light and fluffy.

3. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the dry ingredients, 1 cup at a time, mixing between additions. Add the apple, figs, vanilla and pecans and mix until just incorporated.

4. Spoon the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 1 ½ hours or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin, then gently remove the cake from the tin and peel off the baking paper. Serve in the blistered vine leaf crown.

Cook's note: The cake is delicious on its own but even better with a dollop of crème fraîche or a slice of strong Cheddar.

Find more Easter recipes here.

Photograph: Jan Ras
Production: Abigail Donnelly
Food assistants: Cheri Kustner and Emma Nkunzana