So, after the productive morning, and with a visitor expected, I thought I would make a cake. I would have done the basic chocolate cake I do but remembered in time that the guest is not a big chocolate fan. Then I remembered that I still had the dried fruit sitting on the bench waiting to be made into a boiled fruitcake. So that seemed logical.

230 grams butter
155g light brown sugar
1 cup water (1 1/3 cup, given there was a larger quantity of fruit)
1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
1 teaspoon mixed spice
680 grams of mixed fruit (I actually used just over a kilo… doesn’t seem to have affected it adversely)
20 grams golden syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs, well beaten
1 tablespoon rum or sherry
nuts (no more than one packet) (none this time)
essences (vanilla, lemon, almond) (generally I use vanilla)
135 grams plain flour
135 grams self raising flour

Boil together all ingredients down to salt for 10 minutes. Take care that it doesn’t boil over or catch. Leave to cool.
Prepare a deep (8.5cm) round (20.5cmø) cake tin by greasing and lining the base with baking paper. If the tin is just the usual 6.5cm or so deep, it’s a good idea to put baking paper around the sides extending higher—just in case. The cake doesn’t rise much, but it does pretty much fill the tin to start with.
Preaheat the oven to 170˚C.
Add remaining ingredients and stir well. Place in tin.
Place in oven for 1 1/2 hours. It can also be cooked for longer at a lower temperature.
Remove when a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool for a little while, then turn out of tin. Return to tin to complete its cooling.
Store in airtight container.
If being iced with plastic icing, or for long term storage, pour 1/4 cup sherry over the cake when it first comes out of the oven.
When cool, wrap in alfoil until ready to ice or use.

(The only other time I made this recipe I cooked it in a mini-muffin tin. This was a good idea, as it meant no cutting, but it is only sensible if it’s likely to be eaten promptly. They tend to go stale quite quickly. I have heard of people successfully freezing fruit cakes though. For mini-muffin size it makes 60. Cook for 30 minutes.)

I did fail to leave the boiled fruit mixture to cool for any length of time. It seems ok though. It didn’t cut particularly well, but we didn’t wait till it was anything like cool enough… warm cake out of the oven, yum:-)