Fruit Cake Slice Recipe

By James Maddock

Published 22/06/2011

Here is a great fruit cake recipe that a relative kindly gave to me. Unusually it starts off with a boiling process where the dried fruit is boiled with the sugar and butter. This seems to bring the best out of the fruit, as the currants and raisins become plump and succulent and the boiling produces a toffee-like dimension which enhances the overall flavour of the cake. Once the boiling is over it's a simple matter of adding the other ingredients and then baking it in the oven. If you are looking for an easy and reliable cake recipe then definitely give this a try.

Ingredients

• 4oz butter
• 4oz granulated sugar
• 4oz currants
• 4oz sultanas
• 8oz self-raising flour
• 1 egg
• 1/4 pint tea
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

Method

• Put the butter, sugar, dried fruit and tea in a saucepan (see picture 1).
• Heat the mixture on a low heat until it is simmering (see picture 2) and cook at this temperature for 20 minutes.
• Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool. This will take a while so to speed up the process you could stand the saucepan in a little cold water.
• When completely cold the mixture should resemble the one in picture 3 and have a sticky consistency.
• Add the beaten egg, stir well and then stir in the flour and the spices. You will hopefully have a finished mixture similar to picture 4.
• Transfer the mixture into a suitable cake tin (see picture 5) or loaf tin depending on how you want to serve the cake.
• Bake at 160 degrees C. for 30 minutes and then reduce the heat slightly to 150 degrees C. and continue cooking for about an hour or until the cake is golden brown on top, firm to the touch and a metal skewer comes out clean when pushed into the centre of the cake.
• When cool cut into slices and munch away!

Cook Time:120 minutes

Yield:10 slices