The particular recipie that I use is in a book of my mother's, which is so old and has been used for making christmas cake for such a long time, that the pages are starting to fall out, and it opens straight to the right page, as there are bits of christmas cake stuck all over it! yum.
It is a two-day process, this cake, first the fruit has to soak in a mixture of apricot jam, stewed apple and sherry, then left overnight. The recipie is from English Food by Jane Grigson and is as follows:
1st list:
2 1/2lb mixed dried fruit
2oz chopped and candied peel
2oz glace cherries, halved
3oz preserved ginger, drained and chopped
grated rind and juice of a lemon and an orange
2 tbsps apricot jam
2 tbsps sweet brown sherry
1 cup stewed apple
mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl. Leave overnight.
2nd list:
1/2 lb lightly salted butter
1/2 lb soft dark brown sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
few drops almond essence
cream the butter into the sugar, beat the eggs in one by one, then add the essence.
3rd list
12oz plain flour
1 teaspoon each of the following
ground cinnamon
ground ginger
baking powder
nutmeg
ground cloves
mixed spice
put all the ingredients in the 3rd list into a bowl and stir them together. Mix the fruit and flour alternately into the creamed butter and sugar a little at a time, and try not to snap the wooden spoon like my dad once did, it can get very hard to stir! line a tin with three layers of greaseproof paper, then spoon in the mixture and put another 3 layers on the top. Bake for 2 hours at mark 3, then turn down to mark 1 for a faurther 2 hours. Remove the cake from the oven, puncture holes in the bottom and pour in 1-3 tablespoons of brandy. Leave the cake to cool in the tin and get it out the next day, ready for icing and suchlike.
Don't worry about it going off, these things can last for several months if you keep them in a tin.
I love baking... and your apron is really cute!
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