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asked September 4th 2015

Minced Fruit

Hi again

I saw a fruit cake recipe on the cake International website last night and it says ‘mince the fruit’ (dried fruit). Forgive me if it’s a silly question but do you actually mince it? I can’t imagine this would be correct or would it just mean you’d need to soak the fruit. It actually suggests soaking the fruit for a minimum of three weeks or more. The recipes is by Paul Da Costa Greaves and seemingly it makes 2 cakes but there is no mention of tin size. Any help would be great thanks. x

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Hi again

I saw a fruit cake recipe on the cake International website last night and it says ‘mince the fruit’ (dried fruit). Forgive me if it’s a silly question but do you actually mince it? I can’t imagine this would be correct or would it just mean you’d need to soak the fruit. It actually suggests soaking the fruit for a minimum of three weeks or more. The recipes is by Paul Da Costa Greaves and seemingly it makes 2 cakes but there is no mention of tin size. Any help would be great thanks. x

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Hello bellcakes

Yes you can mince the fruit. The recipe on the CI site is Jamaican black cake or rum cake. It’s really boozy! I mince extra large fruits for my Chirstmas cakes, it helps prevent great big holes in the baked cake or if I’m making a boiled fruit cake. This recipe though is a traditionally Caribbean.
Normally Jamaican rum cake recipes don’t specify cake tin sizes. There’s usually such a lot of thick sloppy, boozy mixture that it gets divided up into how ever many pans you may have. I think this will make a couple of 8″ round cakes. If there is mixture left over pop it into another tin for a bonus cake.
Traditionally rum cake is not iced with sugarpaste because it can be really sticky. Instead it can be eaten with a brown burnt sugar sauce made with water and sugar. This takes me back to my student house days which I shared with students from Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados! Ha! those were the days!!
My mum used to make a boozy friendship fruit cake, I carry on the tradition! To see it take a peek here:

Preparing for a Moist Christmas Cake

Enjoy your Jamaican rum cake, just don’t eat and drive!! x

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Thanks very much. I don’t have a mincer so would simply shredding the fruit do instead? Thanks x

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P.S. Sounds like you enjoyed those student days! x

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If you’ve got a food processor it can be done in that, just don’t over do it otherwise it will turn into paste. Shredding or chopping would be fine too.
My student days were the best days of my life! x 🙂

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Thanks very much! x

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