Ingredients
- 125g dried apricots, coarsely chopped
- 125g dried figs, coarsely chopped *
- 1 cup coarsely chopped almonds *
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- ¾ cup caster sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 1 whole egg
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 60 ml Amaretto *
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
- 250g black cherries, drained
Method
Preheat oven to 180C.
Combine dried fruit, almonds, flour and half the sugar in a bowl. Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until soft peaks form (not as stiff as meringue), then add the whole egg, oil, Amaretto, vanilla and almond extracts.
Stir the egg and dried fruit mixtures together very carefully, add the cherries and mix gently.
Line the base of a buttered loaf tin, spoon in the mixture and bake for 85 minutes (or until cooked when tested with a skewer).
Place tin on wire rack before turning out to cool.*
Whitty has successfully made this recipe with no figs and doubled the apricots, and flaked instead of chopped almonds and has used Cointreau, brandy (or even no alcohol at all) instead of the Amaretto.
Helen Whitty adapted this recipe, found in Australian Gourmet Traveller, 1996
