Mr Daniels Dastardly Fruitcake Recipe

Day before : Put drained and halved cherries in a small bowl and cover completely with bourbon. Cover and leave to soak for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 10 inch round cake pan.

Remove cherries from soaking liquid. Set aside liquid for later use. You should have approx 1 cup Whisk eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Add oil OR butter, sour cream, soaking liquid, cake mix, baking powder and spices. Mix thoroughly with whisk.

Fold in chocolate chips and cherries then pour batter into pan and bake for 30 minutes before turning down temperature to 165 degrees. Continue baking for another 50 minutes or until skewer inserted in the middle comes out more or less clean and cake starts to pull away from side of pan.

Remove from oven and cool in pan.

When cold, pour one teacup of bourbon evenly all over cake. Cover and keep. The next day, pour 3/4 cup bourbon evenly all over cake. Cover and keep. On the third day pour 1/2 cup bourbon evenly all over cake. Cover and keep.

The next day, place the dark chocolate and butter in a bowl and microwave on medium for 2 minutes. Remove, stir and microwave another 2 minutes on medium. Stir till completely melted and combined. Pour in hot coffee and whisk till smooth. Cool till comfortably warm but still pourable.

Invert cake out of pan and unto a cooling rack with a catching tray underneath. Pour melted chocolate over cake all at once. Gently shake cake from side to side to help chocolate spread evenly. It should spread and level out by itself but if it doesn't, use a spatula to spread and cover cake. . Allow frosting to set before cutting.