This is an old recipe which makes a lovely moist cake full in flavour. Like all the best fruit cakes it should be made then kept for three weeks before cutting.
The cake is often decorated with a red and silver (or red and white) cake band of crepe paper which has fringed edges. On top my family would place a real sprig of holly. Many people prefer to ice the cake and decorate with seasonal plastic or edible ornaments.
Ingredients:
275g or 10oz butter
150g or 5oz caster sugar
150g or 5oz soft brown sugar
5 eggs
350g or 12oz of plain, sifted flour
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
225g or 8oz currants
225g or 8oz sultanas
100g or 4oz glace cherries which have been chopped into quarters
100g or 4oz chopped candied peel (mixed peel)
100g 4oz walnuts (chopped)
2 tablespoons of brandy
Method:
1. Take an 8 inch (20cm) cake tin and wipe its inside surfaces with butter. Tie a band of brown paper around the outside of the cake tin, higher than the top of the tin by an inch or two.
2. Put the white and the brown sugars with the butter into a bowl and mix to a smooth cream constituency.
3. Beat the eggs well and then gradually add to the butter and sugar with a little of the flour and all of the spices.
4. Now fold in the rest of the ingredients, including the rest of the flour, until well mixed.
5. Put this mixture into the cake tin and make a slight hollow depression in the centre of the cake.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven (150'C / 300'F / gas mark 2) for two hours.
7. Keep the cake in the oven and reduce the heat to 140'C / 275'F / gas mark 1 for another two hours.
8. (If the top of the cake gets too brown then cover it with a sheet of paper and continue to cook). To test to see if the cake is cooked, take a long metallic skewer and poke down into the centre of the cake. The skewer should come out clean with no wet mixture stuck to it.
9. Remove the paper band and keep covered, preferably in a cake tin, for three weeks. |
