Nuts and dried fruit are associated with the Holiday Season and the New Year.
They are supposed to bring luck and help start the year with sweetness and strength, something we particularly need these difficult times…
English pudding is one of such festive cakes, but it is somewhat too complicated, with lots of strange ingredients, while the Boozy Fruitcake I propose is quite simple, provided you have help chopping dried fruit, and do not spare the cost of real, aged Cognac, Armagnac, or Grand Marnier needed to douse the cake.
There is also our morning treat: the somewhat heavy yeasted Seedy, Fruity and Nutty Bread, close to a fruit-nut cake, with complex, bold flavor I always have sliced in the freezer. We toast pieces to enjoy with our coffee.
A variation of this bread can become a vassilopita —the New Year’s cake where the lucky coin is hidden.
