Possibly the best fruit cake EVER!

Tis the season to be jolly and one thing which is sure to make you happy is this Rich Chocolate Fruit Cake. It's from multiple Women's Weekly Christmas edition cookbooks, but it taste so good that it deserves to be in multiple copies.

Rich Chocolate Fruit Cake

2 x 425g cans seeded black cherries in syrup

1 cup raisins, chopped coarsely

120g  finely chopped seeded dried dates

80g sultanas

95g finely chopped prunes

250ml marsala

120g pecans

185g butter, at room temperature

2 tsp grated orange rind

275g brown sugar

3 eggs

185g plain flour

75g self-raising flour

2 tbs cocoa powder

2 tsp mixed spice

100g dark chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius and line a cake tin with two layers of baking paper. Drain cheeries and reserve 1/3 cup of the syrup. In a bowl, combine the cherries with the remaining fruit , 3/4 cup of the marsala and the reserved cherry syrup. Cover and stand in fridge overnight.

Process half the pecans until ground finely. Chop remaining pecans coarsely. Beat butter, rind and sugar in a bowl with an electric beater. Mix in the eggs, one at a time. Stir the butter mixture into the fruit then the sifted dry ingredients, chocolate and pecans.

Spoon the batter into tin and bake for 3 hours. Brush remaining marsala over hot cake when removed from the oven. Cover in foil and cool in pan overnight.  

Ganache

200g dark chocolate, finely chopped

125ml cream

Stir chocolate and cream in saucepan over low heat until smooth. Refrigerate, stirring occasional for about 20 minutes or until spreadable. Spread cake with ganache. Decorate with Christmassy decoration and dust with icing sugar.