I have had a bag of mixed fruit with peel in my cupboard since April, when Jonty suggested fruit cake might be a good bake to take skiing. I was a bit ambitious with my baking plans though, and ran out of time. This weekend I finally decided to bite the bullet and use it up - I'm so glad I did! What a simple recipe, and what a delicious cake.
1lb 12oz mixed dried fruit with peel (or 1lb 8oz mixed fruit and 4oz mixed peel)
8oz demerara sugar
10floz hot tea (made with a tea bag)
1 egg
2tblsp milk
1lb self-raising flour
4oz chopped walnuts
Begin the day before by dissolving the sugar in the hot tea, and then pouring it over the mixed fruit in a bowl. Cover and and leave overnight. One recipe I read called this part "allowing the fruit to macerate" which I love.
When you're ready to make the cake, beat the eggs with the milk in a bowl, and then stir in the fruit and all its accompanying syrup. Sift in the flour, fold through; then fold in the walnuts. Turn into two 1lb loaf tins and bake at 180 degrees C for about an hour, until springy to touch.
I lined my cake tins with loaf tin liners, which they sell at Asdal. Very handy, since lining the tin is my least favourite part. I'm going to take slices of this for breaktime at work, and I might even butter them, since there's almost no fat in the cake itself.
My other foray into baking this weekend is a recipe from Short and Sweet, in line with my goals for this month. I picked Pumpkin Ginger cupcakes, made with butternut squash because now Hallowe'en is gone, naturally there are no pumpkins to be had at any supermarket. They turned out extremely moist and very tasty - they have a rough look, like rock cakes, but the squash has completely melted into the sponge and I don't think anybody will be able to tell what's making them so moist. They're not too sweet either, which I like.
Definitely #bakingwin today!
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