RETIRED Home Economics teacher Linda Ashton showcased her skills at this year’s Queensland’s Best Dark Rich Fruit Cake Competition, taking home second place.
The top three cakes from the Queensland Ag Show State final joined the top three from the Ekka competition to battle out which fruit cake was crowned “the best”.
To qualify for the ultimate fruit cake showdown, Linda placed third at the Queensland Ag Sub-Chamber Finals, after winning both of her local and district competitions.
She was pleased to make the podium and enjoys entering fruit cake competitions as a hobby.
With 60 years of cooking experience under her belt, Linda began competing eight years ago.
Her love for cooking came from her mother who also competed in fruit cake competitions.
“I used to watch my mother cook them down at our property in Braidwood, New South Wales,” Linda said.
“She had a combustion oven, and I use her recipe now, which is 120 years old – it’s my grandmother’s recipe.”
She was introduced to local fruit cake competitions after her fellow Canungra Show Society members Keer Moriarty and Airlie Worrall encouraged her to join them at the South East Queensland Sub-Chamber finals – a competition she later won.
“I really enjoyed it, and I was sitting there thinking, ‘I can do this’,” Linda said.
“That’s when I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to start to get mother’s old recipe out, get the baking dishes out, and off we go’.”
Linda has won various fruit cake competitions before, including coming first in the Ekka more than four years ago.
She said that her secret to a good fruit cake is patience and a good bottle of brandy.
“I use Black Bottle Brandy because it’s an Australian brandy – nice and strong, and it gives the cake a lovely flavour,” Linda said.
She says that fruit cake recipes usually have people soak their fruit for two days, but she prefers soaking them for two weeks.
Linda is looking forward to bringing her fruit cake back to the Ekka and winning it once more.
“I’ll just keep on cooking as long as I can.”
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