Fruit Cake
Answer
Dear Mike
With a two-oven Aga cooker for most large cakes requiring more than 45 minutes cooking time you can use the Aga Cakebaker which comes complete with 6", 7" and 8" tins. It is an excellent piece of kit and produces delicious moist cakes which are perfectly flat - great for almond paste and icing. Because the environment within the cakebaker is kept at a moderate temperature but the top oven temperature remains unchanged you can simultaneously cook other foods which require a hot oven.
A lot of owners put off making this purchase because they baulk at the price. Aga pans are not cheap because they are made to exacting standards and outperform the competition. However, remember the Cakebaker is not just used for making cakes. It is a universal pan and is excellent for a lot of day to day jobs: making stock, boiling hams, batch cooking Bolognese and Ragu type sauces, and it is also an excellent medium-sized preserving pan for smaller batches of preserves. The lid has a recessed knob so stacking in the bottom oven is possible. The cake tin carrier is also brilliant for steamed sponge and suet puddings and makes removing a cooked Christmas pudding an absolute snap.
However, for large celebration fruit cakes I thoroughly recommend Mary Berry`s excellent recipe in the Aga Book for cooking long and slow in the simmering oven. The only variation I recommend is to save the alcohol for adding after the cake is cooked. The quality of dried fruits has improved considerably over the last 15 years and these days the product has a higher moisture content than that of the ingredients available at the time of writing of the Aga Book. Hence including all the liquid can mean the cake takes longer to cook through than set out in the instructions. I follow the recipe as standard but save the alcohol to "feed" the cooked cake over a period of weeks by peppering the underside of the cake with holes with a skewer and drizzling teaspoons of liquor so that the cake is gently marinaded in the run-up to the Big Day.
The quantity of ingredients for a square and round tin differ and the rule to work with is that the volume of cake mixture suitable for a square tin of one size is the correct amount for a round tin 1" larger. So follow the chart on page 101 of the Aga Book for the quantities for 12" round tin and cook for 14 hours on the grid shelf on the floor of the simmering oven. If making a 12" square tin the quantities are increased and the cake should cook in 15 hours. As with any rich cake, the standard way of testing for being thoroughly cooked is to insert a clean skewer or knife into the centre of the cake - it should come out clean. If there is still some uncooked mixture adhering to the skewer, return the cake to the oven for a further 30 minutes or so until cooked. Leave to cool in the tin and then wrap tightly in greaseproof paper or baking parchment and then foil and keep in a tightly sealed tin in a cool dark place. Feed as described above.
I haven`t given the Aga Book chart of ingredients as I consider the Aga Book to be an essential item for every owner to understand basic Aga cooking techniques, oven positions and timings. It is for this reason that Aga include a copy with every new Aga cooker sold. If you haven`t got a copy make it top of your list of "must haves" next time you visit your Aga shop.
Once you have mastered the technique feel free to import your own favourite cake recipes using similar timings. I think that Delia`s Traditional Christmas Cake is hard to beat and I won my first cookery competition at the age of 13 with it and it has served me in good stead ever since. I just can`t be bothered with all that Royal Icing malarkey - glaci fruits with an apricot glaze is the one for me anytime!
Good luck with the cake!
Best wishes
Richard Maggs
THE AGA COOKERY DOCTOR
Question
Dear Cookery Doctor I wish to bake a 12 inch diameter and 3 inch deep heavy fruit cake (it`s for the bottom tier of a wedding cake). I have a two oven Aga. Can you suggest a recipe and say how long it will take to cook, which oven I should use use and how I will know when it is done? I do not have an Aga Cakebaker. Thank you for your help. Yours sincerely Mike Jackson