Fruit cake. A British tea time treat

Mandy’s never fail, boiled fruit cake

Oh and before you think I’ve gone even more ‘Ga Ga’ its the fruit that gets boiled, not the cake!

Earlier this year I had the good fortune to stay at Laskill Country House (www.laskillcountryhouse.co.uk) near Hawnby in North Yorkshire. If ever you’re travelling on the Yorkshire Moors treat yourself to B & B with Mandy, the chef patronne, her hospitality is legendary.  The place is tucked away off the B1257 in Bilsdale (yes there is such a place,) about five miles north of Helmsley, not far from Ampleforth Abbey and school, in God’s own country and truly beautiful.   

Having arrived late after a full and busy day, what a lovely surprise it was to find a little box, beside the tea and coffee kit in my room, that had a generous chunk of this cake inside.  Not exactly the ideal food to go to bed on but I was shattered and it really touched the spot.   If you ask nicely Mandy will even give you 'seconds!'

Since then I’ve left some out for the houseguests coming stay to my apartment at “El Observatorio” and they love it.  I find that it gets things off to a brilliant start.  Well worth trying as a welcome, if you let your place out to summer visitors.

Ingredients

·         750gm Sultanas

·         2 teaspoons mixed spice

·         2 teaspoons ground dried ginger

·         2 teaspoons baking powder

·         1 generous pinch salt

·         1 generous tablespoon glycerine (from good pharmacies)

·         3 eggs beaten

·         250gm butter

·         280gm plain flour

·         250gm granulated sugar (Demerara if you want a brown looking result)

·         1 tablespoon Demerara sugar

·         250ml water*

*I used the settled dregs from some homemade Hierbas, our local Ibicenco liqueur, one time, instead of water.  It added a tiny hint of aniseed to the finished cake. Brilliant!!

Method

• Set the oven to 160 C

·         Line a well oiled rectangular 21cm cake tin with baking parchment

·         First put the dried fruit, butter, sugar, spices together with the water (or booze – be careful though, if you use full strength liquor it could burst into flames, dilute it 50:50 with water) into a large’ish pan and  bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer for 15/20 minutes to let the fruit absorb the liquid.  Give the mixture a stir from time to time so that nothing sticks to the pan bottom.

·         Whisk the eggs and glycerine together

·         Sift and stir the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large mixing bowl

·         When the fruit is nicely plumped up, pour the contents of the pan over the flour and stir vigorously until the batter has absorbed all the lovely gooey fruit and liquid.

·         Finally whilst still stirring vigorously, add the egg mixture.  It really is important to stir the eggs and batter together quickly.  If not the egg will cook before it mixes in!

·         Finally pour the batter into the baking tin, sprinkle the top with a generous desert spoon of Demerara sugar and set it to cook on a lower middle shelf in the oven for about 60/70 minutes. 

·         Check in the usual way with a skewer after about an hour and make your own mind up about when to take the cake from the oven.

·         Set the cake aside, in its tin, for about 30 minutes then turn it out onto a rack to cool.  If you can resist, wait at least a day before eating.  The longer you can manage to keep the cake, within reason, the better it gets!  That’s what the glycerine is for.  It helps the baked cake to reabsorb atmospheric moisture and become lovely and sticky.

 

HINT!

Us Yorkshire folk allus eyts a big cob o' Wensli'dale cheyse wi us frewt cake.  Meks it teyst reyt gradeley!
We allus calls it cut n'd cum agin cake, cos its cheyp ter mek and fer ter gi away, yer can cum again and eyt sum more.  Not tew regler tho!

Translation supplied on demand