Christmas Fruit Cake (Emilia-Romagna)

Desserts

Ingredients

Honey - 1 1/3 cups

All purpose flour - 5 cups

Peeled almonds - 1/2 pound

Pine nuts - 4-5 tbsps

White seedless raisins - 1/2 cup

Mixed candied fruit, diced - 1/3 pound

Cooked fruit, sieved - 1 cup

Bitter chocolate, chopped - 4 squares

Ground cinnamon - pinch

Anise seed - 4 tsps

Softened butter - 4 tbsps

Baking soda - 2 1/2 tsps

Butter for cake pan

Candied peel or fruit to decorate.

Pour the honey into a heavy pan, add 2 or 3 tbps water and heat gently, stirring until liquid. Take the pan from the heat. Sift the flour into a large bowl and slowly pour in the liquid honey, stirring vigourously until thoroughly blended. Mix well with the remaining cake ingredients, adding the soda, dissolved in a little wamr water, at the very end. Turn the mixture into a generously buttered tube pan and decorate with candied peel or fruit, cut in half or left whole. Bake in a slow oven (350F) for about 1 hour, or until the cake tests done.