Holiday Fruitcake for Athletes
Traditional fruitcake always gets a bad rap; those little green chunks of what-is-that? But our revamped version is one of those amazing nutrient-dense foods that can be perfect for any endurance athlete and any athletic endeavour.
As Thoreau said about life in general, Simplify. In the recipe below, we've done just that. The key to making our fruitcake? Just include fruits you like! (And can identify - no candied green bits!) We've also skipped the rum and reduced the sugar.
Mixing up this fruitcake take a bit of pre-planning. The night before you plan to make the cake, place 1.5 cups of your favorite combination of dried fruits and nuts in a large bowl, cover in orange juice and soak overnight in the fridge. If you're stumped for favorite fruits, toss in a handful of your favorite trail mix. Voila!
Holiday Fruitcake for Athletes
1/2 cup softened butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cane sugar
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup flour (gluten free baking mix works well too!)
Soaked fruit/nut mixture after straining off the excess juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon orange marmalade
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line the bottom of a 6-8" cake pan with parchment paper. (Not waxed paper -- the wax will melt off!)
Strain the fruit and discard the orange juice.
In a large bowl whisk together the softened butter, vanilla and cane sugar.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
Adding one ingredient at a time, blend the eggs into the butter mixture. Then add the flour mixture, soaked fruit, and lastly the marmalade.
Pour in the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake on the center rack until a knife poked into the center comes out clean, approximately 60-90 minutes. Enjoy, and don't forget the velvet bow!
Makes 8 servings, at about 200 calories each.
For more recipes for athletic fuel from Skratch, check out our Feed Zone Cookbooks!
