- Making time 3h 45 minutes
- Preparation time 45minutes
Ingredients
- 1 kg luxury mixed dried fruit
- Four tablespoons whisky
- 50 g ready-chopped glace ginger
- Related rind and juice of 1 lemon
- 300 g plain flour
- 2 tablespoons ground mixed spice
- One teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 250 b butter, at room temperature
- 250 g dark muscovado sugar
- Five eggs, beaten
- 50 g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
To decorate: –
- 11 glace cherry halves
- 11 pecan nuts
Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.
– Maya Angelou
Preparation:
- Put the dried fruit in a bowl with the whisky, glace ginger, lemon rind and juice. Mix, cover and leave to soak overnight.
- Mix the flour with the spices, beat the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until pale and creamy.
- Mix in alternate spoonsful of beaten egg and flour until all has been added and the mixture is smooth. Gradually mix in the soaked fruit and chopped nuts until evenly combined.
- Spoon the mixture into a 20 cm deep round cake tin, base and sides lined with non-stick baking paper, and spread the surface level, arrange the cherry halves and pecans around the top edge.
- Bake in the centre of a preheated oven, 1400C set a timer for 33/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes then loosen the edges, turn out on to a wire rack and peel off the lining paper.
- Leave to cool completely, decorate the cake with a strip of waxed paper tied around the cake with raffia, if liked, store in an airtight tin for up to 2 weeks.
