Grape seeds ready for pressing!

This recipe for a classic holiday fruitcake is lightly sweetened with real honey and the fruit is soaked and simmered in Frey Organic Dessertage Port. It's easy to make and certainly will disappear quickly at your holiday party! I use organic ingredients whenever possible, to help organic farmers and the planet.

***Holiday Fruitcake with Bitter Chocolate Sauce, made by Chef Tamara Frey.***

Recipe makes one cake.

1 cup thinly sliced dried apricots. (organic Turkish apricots are usually not too dry and perfect for this)
1 cup thinly sliced dried figs
1 cup Frey Organic Dessertage Port (Mendocino dessert wine)

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (vegan alternative: coconut butter)
1 cup honey
4 eggs (vegan alternative: an egg-replacer found at health food stores)
1 tablespoon vanilla

3 cups whole spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg (fresh ground nutmeg is best by using whole nutmegs and rough-grating them on a cheese grater)
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup chopped walnuts
For the Bitter Chocolate Sauce and garnish:
¾ cup heavy cream (vegan alternative: just leave out the cream and simply melt the chocolate as-as; it will only leave the cooled chocolate on the brittle side)
1½ cups chopped bittersweet chocolate
½ to 1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 300F and generously butter an angel food cake pan (vegan alternative: coconut oil).

In small saucepan, combine the apricots, figs, and Frey Organic Dessertage sweet wine. Simmer until wine is almost boiled off, which takes 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. In large bowl beat the butter with electric beater until creamy. Add honey and beat until blended. Add eggs (or vegan egg-replacer) one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix that in. Set aside.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cranberries, almonds, and walnuts. Then gently mix in the apricots and figs by folding. Spoon it all into the buttered (or oiled) angel food cake pan. Bake approx. 50 minutes or until a knife inserted into center comes out clean. Let it sit 15 minutes, then extract it out of its mold onto a cooling rack. While it cools, bring the cream to a simmer (for vegans, skip to the next step). Add the chopped chocolate. Let melt a few minutes. Stir, then let it cool but not so much that it cannot pour out. Place the cake on serving platter, pour over the chocolate sauce, then garnish with the chopped macadamia nuts. Surround with pine boughs or other seasonal decorative.