Chocolate and Amaretto Fruit Cake

This is an easy to make, moist chocolate cake. As usual I've reduced the amount of sugar added which I believe doesn't impact on the flavour of the cake as most cakes are far too sweet. However, if you prefer a sweeter cake add an additional 20g of caster sugar.
Marinade the dried fruit in Amaretto for 24hrs before making the cake. You can use any combination of unsweetened dried fruit and if you want more 'bite' to the cake add 50g chopped walnuts when you add the fruit to the cake mix.
Put the mix into a lined, round 16cm springform cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven for 35-45mins at 180C.

Ingredients
95g unsweetened dates
55g unsweetened dried cranberries
2 tblsp Amaretto 
170g unsalted butter (room temperature)
50g brown sugar
50g caster sugar
140g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
60g best quality unsweetened cocoa powder
3 medium eggs (beaten)


Method
Marinate the dried fruit in Amaretto for 24hrs.

Put the butter and both types of sugar in a mixing bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Little by little add the beaten eggs, make sure you incorporate all the egg into the butter/sugar mix before adding more. Make sure every bit of egg is well mixed in, don't leave any visible egg in the mix. Using a metal spoon, sift and fold in the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, cocoa powder.

Add the dried fruits and fold in. Put the mix into your pre-prepared cake tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 35-45 minutes. After 35 minutes test the cake with a skewer, if the cake is cooked the skewer can be inserted into the cake and then will come out clean. If there's cake mix on it you need to continue baking for up to 10 minutes more. The final time depends on your oven. 

Cool on a wire rack and when cold store in an airtight cake-tin. If you can resist it, the cake will stay fresh for up to 5 days. It's delicious if served with natural, Greek style yoghurt. This cuts through the sweetness of the Amaretto and compliments the flavours very well. It would also be good with vanilla or chocolate ice cream.