My mother was not what anyone could call a natural cook. However, as a child, I do remember her baking this cake as part of her limited repertoire. I think she favoured the recipe for several reasons: it was quick and easy to make, the ingredients were not too difficult to obtain in the early years following rationing, and it kept well. Times have changed since then and while we no longer have to contend with rationing, this cake is still very economical to make and is one of my regular bakes.
INGREDIENTS
- 230g plain flour
- 115g unsalted butter
- 60g caster sugar
- 115g mixed dried fruit
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 145ml milk
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp mixed spice
- Pinch of salt
METHOD:
- Set oven at 180C/160Fan/Gas mark 4
- Grease and line an 18cm cake tin
- Into a large bowl add the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and mixed spice.
- Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add the sugar and dried fruit
- Add the beaten eggs to the dry ingredients
- Add the milk slowly and beat well, adding a little more milk if the mixture seems too stiff
- Spoon into the tin and bake for 30-40 minutes until light golden brown. You can tell if the cake is cooked in the centre by inserting a skewer which should come out clean. During baking if the top of the cake appears to be browning too quickly, simply cover lightly with kitchen foil.
- Allow cake to cool in tin and then turn on to a wire cooling rack.
Fan oven at 160 degrees: at 40 minutes still visibly wet in the crevices. Increased to 170 degrees for further 15 minutes. Skewer sticky – very light on top still. Gave it another 15 minutes, skewer came out clean. Should the recommended time be 1 hour 30 – 40 minutes ? This is my first fruit cake attempt but a quick look around at other recipes (maybe ought to have done that first ?) reveal longer cooking times for this size and type.
Hi Gordon,
Thanks for the feedback! Nana has re-tested the recipe in her kitchen to check accuracy of times etc. The cake took exactly 30 minutes to bake in accordance to the recipe, so we’re a little baffled about the problems you had with the baking times and oven temperatures given. Did you use a different size of cake tin perhaps? This may affect the cooking times. In any case, sorry you encountered those problems and thanks for providing the feedback of your experiences.
Hello and thanks to both of you. I’m going to persevere with this recipe – the flavour is just what I’m looking for – very similar to the one my mother used to bake (she came from The Mumbles but her recipe, now lost, might have come from her mother who was Irish). Next step is to try it in a conventional oven I think – I’ve got my doubts about our oven’s fan setting now.
At last! This is my Nana’s recepie I’d lost. Thanks.