You'll need to plan ahead when making this cake as the dried fruits are soaked in brandy overnight and cooking time is 3½ hours. Preheate oven 140ºC, gas mark 1
Orange zest
Lemon zest
25g Pecan Nuts, chopped
25g Whole Almonds, chopped
½tsp mixed spice
¼tsp ground nutmeg
175g Plain Flour, sifted
200g Currants
100g Sultanas
100g Raisins
85g Glacé Cherries, quartered
40g Italian Cut Mixed Peel
75g Dried Apricots, roughly chopped
50g Glacé Pineapple Wedges, roughly chopped
2tbsp Brandy
175g unsalted butter
175g Molasses Sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup or corn syrup
3 large eggs, beaten
- Place the fruit in a large bowl, pour in the brandy, stir, cover and leave overnight.
- Prepare an 9-10 inch round cake tin by greasing the base and sides and lining with a double thickness of baking parchment.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (use an electric whisk if you have one), add the treacle and mix well.
- Gradually add the eggs a little at a time, beating well between each addition to prevent curdling. If the mixture does curdle add 1tbsp flour, beat until smooth, then continue to add the eggs.
- Gently fold in the flour and spices with a metal spoon. Fold in the nuts, lemon and orange zest and the soaked fruit mixture until well mixed.
- Carefully spoon the cake mixture into the prepared tin, levelling the surface with the back of a spoon. Place a circular 'tent' of parchment paper, with a small hole in the middle, over the mixture. For extra protection, tie a double thickness band of brown paper around the outside of the tin to prevent the cake from cooking too quickly around the edges.
- Stand the cake tin on a couple of sheets of brown paper on a baking tray and place in a preheated oven 140ºC, gas mark 1 for about 3-3½ hours, or until a sharp knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin. When cold, remove from the tin and wrap in greaseproof paper or foil and store in an airtight tin. For a really moist cake, prick the cake with a fine skewer all over and feed with 1tbsp brandy every 2-3 weeks until ready to decorate. The cake will mature with keeping.
- Decorate with Marzipan or icing
