• Making time 30 minutes
• Preparation time  1- 2 hours

Ingredients

• 250 g plain flour
• One teaspoon of baking powder
• One teaspoon of mixed spice
• 50 g ground almonds
• Grated rind and juice of a half lemon
• 175 g light muscovado
• 175 g butter, at room temperature
• Sugar
• Four eggs are beaten
• 500 g luxury mixed dried fruit
• 25 g blanched almonds

You can’t stop the future you can’t rewind the past the only way to learn the secret ….is to press play.

– Jay Asher

Preparation:

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, spice, ground almond and lemon rind in a bowl.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in another bowl until pale and creamy. Gradually mix in alternate spoonfuls of beaten egg and flour mixture until all has been added and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the dried fruit and the lemon juice.
3. Spoon the mixture into a 20 cm deep round cake tin lined base, and aides with non-stick baking paper spread the surface level and arrange the almonds in rings over the top. Bake in a preheated oven, 160⁰C, set timer for 13/4 – 2 hours until a deep brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Check the after 1 hour and cover loosely with foil if the almonds look as though they are going to over brown.
4. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then loosen the edges, turn out onto a wire rack and peel off the lining paper. Leave to cool completely, and store in an airtight tin for up to 1 week.