In that recipe, 'cornflour' is definitely what Americans call corn starch.

Absolutely corn starch where Corn Flour is made from whole corn for making tortillas usually Masa which is nixtamalized.

patriciae

I'm begging to differ here- as South Africa uses British English, corn flour could be either made from corn, or from wheat as finely milled as cornstarch is. I might even speculate that it's the wheat version in this recipe because until relatively recently, the word "corn", which is derived from a Latin word meaning "kernel", was used to refer to wheat- hence the contentious Corn Laws which exacerbated the Irish potato famine in the mid 1800s. Often what Americans call cornstarch is referred to as "maize flour".

While the two behave slightly differently, IME they bake pretty much the same, so you could use either.

What are the measurements? That will give you some clue as to wether it is corn starch or flour from corn.

The amount of corn flour is 110 grams (4 oz or likely almost 1 cup); and, the plain flour is 310 grams (11 oz or just over 2 1/2 cups). I like to weigh my ingredients and will likely do so in this case. The recipe is here.

I've never seen or heard of cornflour being made of anything but maize. I'm absolutely certain that's what's meant in this recipe. The recipe reads like a standard British recipe which makes sense since Botswana was once a British colony and the author is a Brit. And yes, weigh the ingredients. So much more accurate than using volume. And the recipe gives the weights. Why faff with conversion?

This is the stuff. Note what it says under 'Description' .... It's cornstarch.

I found this on AI. Given the proportions, I suspect it's not cornstarch...

"In fruitcake recipes, "cornflour" can refer to two different ingredients depending on your location: cornstarch in the U.S., which is used to thicken and tenderize by reducing gluten, or corn flour in the UK and other countries, made from ground whole corn kernels, which adds a fine texture and slightly sweet, nutty flavor. American corn flour adds a delicate crumb and increased moistness. "

”No, corn flour and cornstarch are not interchangeable in most recipes because corn flour is ground corn kernel with protein and fiber, while cornstarch is pure starch extracted from the kernel”

Would love to see a picture and description of this interesting fruitcake after you make it, Stacey.

I don't think there's any problem with the proportions of cornflour to plain flour. Quite a lot of recipes use a combination of the two flours. The ratio looks fine. 'Cornflour' as used in British English, and by extension Botswanan English, contains no fibre. It is not ground from the kernel. It is pure starch extracted from the endosperm only. The definition of what 'cornflour' means in US English isn't relevant. The recipe isn't American. Did anyone look at the picture of the ingredients I posted? It specifically says that the pack of cornflour contains only cornstarch.

The lowdown on cornflour/cornstarch: https://share.google/v8kzzt0AbGqH1d2rc

https://theloopywhisk.com/2022/01/15/cornstarch-corn-flour-difference/

That was an interesting compilation of all the possibilities Sherry.

Historically the word Corn indicated any grain including barley, rye, or even oats. That is how we ended up with corn for maize here. I can remember watching a TV show of Robinson Crusoe where the person made white bread with the corn he had grown. The corn they used for the program was maize plants but the bread was wheat. It was pretty funny.

patriciae

My point is that American usage, while an interesting discussion topic, is not relevant to the OP's question. The recipe is written by a Scot in British English. (Note also that quantities are given by weight, as in all British recipes.) The first books were published in the UK some years before they came out in the US. So 'Cornflour' means what it means in British English, not what it means in US English.

Flora is right. It's nothing to do with U.S. equivalents or meanings!

I wonder if part of this is that most non-GF Americans use cornstarch by the spoon for thickening sauces, and by the shake, in the past, for baby powder (nowadays they recommend no powder for baby) and are just not used to baking with goodly quantities of starch. I'm no expert in this, but my vague understanding of what cornstacrh adds to baking, besides tenderizing all purpose flour, like any starch, by decreasing the protein percentage (potential gluten, which toughens the crumb), is that it gelatinizes, the way it does when thickening a sauce, and retains moisture and chew, which could be very useful in a fruitcake.

I have heard of using corn starch in the Asian inspired breads. instead of tangzhone.

patriciae

If you buy a bag of dried mixed fruit here, sold ready mixed specifically for baking fruit cakes, it will contain raisins, sultanas, currants and candied citrus peel. Some of the more expensive brands might contain glacé cherries.

My favorite fruit in a fruit cake is pear. :)

Candied pear?

I make a special fruit cake at Christmas that is almost all brandy-soaked candied fruits and nuts stuck together with a little spiced flour and eggs. I use red and green cherries, pears, pineapple, peaches, apricots and ginger (the cherries I leave whole and the rest cut into large chunks), and whole Brazil nuts, almonds and pecans.

It must be, right? Dried pears are sort of tough like dried apples, though softer, but the kind that goes in cake is translucent and gummy.

This is the kind of mixed fried fruit used for classic fruit cakes.

Note the reference to 'fruit cakes'.

Personally I like some candied peel in the mix. But pears, pineapple, peaches, etc., while tasty, are not traditional ingredients for a classic fruit cake. As Coleen said, that would be a 'Special' cake and non-traditional. The history of traditional fruit cake is that it was made in a country where there was no fresh or exotic preserved fruit in winter and only dried vine fruits were available: currants, raisins and sultanas. The term 'fruit' in 'fruit cake' has this specific meaning. It doesn't include exotic stuff like peaches which were practically unheard of outside the kitchens of the super rich until the mid 20th century.

LOL! The origin story is very interesting, Floral, and I thank you for telling us. As a child of the latter part of the 20th C., however, I picked the "good" fruit out of my slice of the fruitcake, which was the pears, and when they were gone the pineapple. These were not "exotic" fruits in Southern California, though, of course, we had all kinds of vines, too, I don't remember a lot of raisin-y stuff in the fruit cakes, though they must have been there. It was more colorful stuff, but small pieces, not like the current stained glass cakes. Including those plasticky "cherries",

Thank you, Floral, for your suggestion and explanation of the classic dried fruit mix for this fruit cake. It makes a lot of sense as being typical for the region and general time frame.

Many thanks again to everyone for your input.