Rich, Dark Fruit Cake

Ingredients

175g (6oz) butter

175g (6oz) sugar

225g (8oz) plain flour (Dove Farm gluten-free flour is the one I used)

1 rounded teaspoon of mixed spice

1/2 rounded teaspoon of baking powder

4 eggs

700g (1.5lb) mixed dried fruit

1 rounded tablespoon ground almonds

1 rounded tablespoon black treacle

100g (4oz) glace cherries

50g (2oz) mixed candied peel

Method

Cream the butter and sugar. Sieve the flour, baking powder and mixed spice together. Beat the eggs. Alternate between adding a little of the flour and then eggs to the mixture. Add the almonds and the treacle. Add the fruit. Bake in a lined tin (inside and out) for 180C for 1 hour, then turn down the temperature to 150C and cook for a further 2 hours.

The tin I use is a circular on that is about 23cm/9” in diameter, and the cake fills it to about 10-13cm/4-5” high. Decrease the cooking time for smaller cakes.

Some ingredients you might not be familiar to everyone: mixed spice - is a commercially available (in Britain) blend of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Wiki tells me that the closest equivalent in the US is pumpkin pie spice.

dried mixed fruit - we can buy bags of ‘mixed fruit’ and this is normally different types of dried grapes - currents, raisins and sultanas. If you stick to dried grape fruits you will not go wrong, but you might like to add some other dried fruit to your taste. If using other fruit, then chop them up well, so they are the same size as the dried grapes.

black treacle - this is an incredibly viscous sweet syrup made in the process of refining sugar. The American substitute recommended at Food.com is ‘blackstrap molasses’. The black treacle gives the cake some of its flavour.

glace cherries - candied cherries

tablespoon - in Scotland a tablespoon is not a spoon you eat with at the table, it is spoon that is used to serve things at the table. It is about 18ml. But it isn't 18ml of treacle that is require. Put am 18ml spoon into the treacle and take out a good dollop!

To feed a cake: prick the bottom of the cake with a fork. Pour whisky into a tablespoon, and then slowly dribble it over the surface of the cake. It will sink into the cake. Do the same with a second tablespoon of whisky. Then wrap the cake in two layers of grease proof paper, wrap in aluminium foil and store in a tin with a tight fitting lid. Repeat this feeding on a weekly basis. The paper and foil do not need to be changed unless they are damaged whilst opening the cake.