The Cherub's Food and Craft: Boiled Fruit Cake

For a friend, who is just a wee bit under the gun!

It's a bit of a long post as it's a how to for Boiled Fruit Cake.

The recipe, well loved and very much used as you can see.

750g mixed dried fruit - you can use any combination, I don't like mixed peel, but my awesome bulk food place, has mixed fruit with or without peel. And we like lots of cherries, so there is 200g of glace cherries in this cake and the rest is mixed fruit, sultanas, currants and raisins. If you like the dried fruit can be soaked for a week or so in rum, but we don't have rum and I'm too impatient to wait that long anyways, makes it an awesome Christmas Cake though.

125g buter I use salted
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of apple juice, or orange or whatever you have.
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1 cup of self raising flour
1 teaspoon of mixed spice.

So pop the butter, sugar and juice in a saucepan.

Then put the dried fruit on top, stir to combine and bring slowly to the boil, to melt the butter. Stir a few times during boiling. Then boil for 3 minutes or so until .....

Your fruit is plump and lucious! Let cool for a bit - you can transfer to another bowl and let it cool right down - but again - IMPATIENT!! - I just let enough heat go out of it to not cook the eggs into scramble.

Then you need to line the tin and as fruit cakes have a longer baking time, you need more protection. So I use 3 layers of baking around the edge and then 4 layer of brown paper and one of baking on the base. I just measure around the tin and then cut into it so it lays flat.

So pop in the mixed spice, eggs and flour and stir. And yes I do it in the saucepan why make more washing up

Into the tin and level the top - and give it a couple of bangs on the bench, especially if you are going to ice it, it gets rid of the bubbles.

Just out of the oven, then I wrap the tin in some tea towels and let it cool over night, you can at this stage douse it with more rum. If you want a really rum soaked cake you can just keep feeding it wrapped in foil for a couple of months.