This recipe will knock you socks offer. A total delight from a Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh recipe with my little twists added to include our diced dried fruit and sticky quince syrup (because they are a flavour match made in heaven).

Ingredients
400g Singing Magpie diced dried fruit
1 tspn bicarbonate of soda
250 mls water
2 tlbspns Sticky Quince Syrup
200g plain flour
2 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt
125g unsalted butter at room temp
200g caster sugar
1 large egg (again I try to have this a room temp)
1 tspn vanilla extract

Salted caramel coconut topping
75 g unsalted butter
1 tlbspn Sticky Quince Syrup
95g soft brown sugar
60 ml thickened cream
95g shredded coconut
1/4 tspn salt

Method
Place the diced dried fruit, sticky quince syrup, bicarb soda and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time. Remove from the heat and set aside until cool.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan. I used a muffin tray and muffin liners. You can also use lined bottomless cake rings on a baking tray. 

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl and set aside. Place the butter and sugar in an electric mixer and beat on a medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Reduce the speed to low and, in alternate batches, fold in the dried fruit mix and the sifted dry ingredients.

Divide the mix between the muffin liners and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Ideally make the topping while the cake is baking but I did forget, lucky this topping comes together very quickly. Place all the ingredients for the topping in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the butter is melted and the ingredients are combined.

Once the cakes are cooked, remove from the oven (keep the oven on) and spoon about 1½ tablespoons of the topping mixture over the surface of each pudding. Return to the oven for another 12 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes, or until they come to room temperature, before transferring to a wire rack to cool before serving.

These will keep for up to 2 days at room temperature (or in the fridge, if it’s particularly warm) in an airtight container. Serve them as they are, or better still warm them through for 5 minutes in an oven or the microwave and serve with some cream or ice-cream.

Utterly delicious. A total crowd pleaser. Makes 12

UPDATED RECIPES 6 September 2024: 

• Belinda Jeffery's Last Minute Christmas cake doesn't have to be last minute at all and is a truly wonderful fruit cake or it can be used as a pudding. The recipe is a big one - making 4 x 1kg cakes. So I generally half the recipe (and make 2 cakes) and use the 500g bake of diced fruit mix and 100g of the citrus peel (you can use less if you want less of the citrus flavour). I also included one tablespoon of Sticky Quince syrup to the fruit mix. Here is a reel of me making the cakes.
• I made Sophie Hansen's baked porridge recipe, changing is up a bit by including apple (2 cups), rhubarb (1 cup), our diced fruit mix ( 3/4 cup) and a dash of sticky quince syrup. Here's is Sophie's recipe to have a go. 
  
• Eccles Cakes from Darren Purchese, expert guest on Masterchef and a judge on The Great Australian Bake Off. You can see my reel here where I used our diced fruit mix, these cakes were a total dessert pleaser, especially with the kids.
• the Ultimate Rhubarb Fruit Crumble Oh my goodness the tang… sharpness.. texture… sweetness and spice was pretty perfect. You can check out my reel here to see how I assembled the crumble layers and my rather loud excitement upon serving.
• Our Fig and Orange mincemeat  which might be a Christmas favourite but try folding the fruit mince through vanilla ice-cream, it's a winner all year round.
• The popular Mrs T's very lovely boiled fruitcake recipe.
• My take on Emiko Davies Italian bread pudding (pinza di pane) and also her sensational Pan Del Doge Di Zaira (Zaira's Fruit Cake) (please note that on the HUnter and Folk page they have forgotten to list 100g of granulated sugar in the ingredients list). In both recipes I replaced the fruit listed with the equivalent weight of our diced fruit mix. Stunning.
• Dried fruit and orange scrolls
• A crowd favourite Chocolate Fruit and Almond Protein balls
  
• I haven't personally made this recipe yet (Healthy homemade muesli bar slice recipe) but a lovely subscribers sent it to me saying she replaced the dried fruit quantities with our spectacular dice fruit mix.

An easy Sunday bake for you. Super easy and something to whip up for morning tea. Eat them warm and enjoy a cuppa. The original recipe is available here, but I’ve changed it up to include our diced fruit mix

DRIED FRUIT and ORANGE SCROLLS

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tblspns dried citrus power (I simply crushed some dried citrus slices, the original recipe uses zest)

1 2/3 cups of whole-wheat plain flour ( I used @woodford) 

2 tspn baking powder

1/4 tspn salt

3 tblspn cold butter cut in cubes

2 tblspn cream cheese

2/3 cup milk

2 tblspn Spectacular diced dried fruit mix

2 tblspn softened butter for filling

For the glaze

1/4 cup cream cheese

3 tblspn icing sugar

2 tblspn orange juice

Method

Turn the oven on to 180 degrees Celsius. 
Mix the brown sugar with the dried citrus. Put 2 tblspn of the orange sugar mix in a bowl that you’ll make the dough in. Keep the remaining sugar mix for the filling. 
Add the flour, baking powder, salt and mix through. Add the butter and cream cheese pieces. Rub through the flour mix until all combined and the mix is crumbling. 
Make a well in your flour mix and pour the milk in. Mix through all the ingredients then put your dough (wrapped) in the freezer to cool. While the dough is cooling grease your dish - I used a shallow casserole dish and greased very well with butter. 
Unwrap the dough into your floured surface. Roll the dough out to about 26cm x 12cm. It was a bit sticky. Spread the softened butter then sprinkle your dried fruit/sugar mix over the dough. 
I started with short side and slow rolled the dough, using a scraper to make the rolling pretty easy. I covered the log in plastic or beeswax (if you have one big enough) and then put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes. 
Take the dough out and unwrap. I measured out 8 pieces in the log. You can use a cerated knife to slice each scroll but I find using a piece of cotton to make each cut in the dough (see my Instagram for a demo of this). Place your first slice in the centre of your pan then place the rest evenly around it (about 1cm apart). 
Bake until golden on top (I did sprinkle any leftover dried fruit/sugar mix over each scroll). It took about 25-27 mins in my oven. 
While the scrolls are cooking mix together the glaze ingredients. 
Once the scrolls are cooked, let cool for a few mins and then pour/spread the glaze on. 

Eat warm and enjoy xxx Makes approx 8-9 scrolls

Mrs T’s Boiled Fruit Cake [via Pinnaroo Farm's Aunty Val]

1 x 440g tin crushed pineapple

1 cup sugar

2 cups Spectacular Dried Diced Fruit

125g butter

Pinch of Salt

1 tsp bi-carb soda

2 large eggs (beaten)

1 cup Pinnaroo Farms Sprouted Red Lentil Flour

1 cup SR flour

1 tsp mixed spice

 Method

Place pineapple (the whole can), sugar, fruit, butter and salt in a medium size saucepan, simmer 10 minutes, add bi-carb soda. Cool. Add beaten eggs, flours (sifted together), mixed spice to other ingredients and mix.

Spread into 20cm (8 inch) square cake tin lined with baking paper. Pre-heat oven to160c and bake for 35-40 minutes or until set when tested. Cool in tin.