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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.
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