Boiled Fruit 'n Whiskey Cake.

This fruit cake will make an excellent Christmas or wedding cake. It keeps for up to three months, mine didn't 'cos I have hungry men in the house. But I shall do another one for Christmas this year. Use any fruit that you have, or go and do a special shop just for this. As long as you end up with around six and a half cups of mixed fruit. Ingredients....
2 1/4 cups Sultanas.
1 1/2 cups Raisins. (chopped)
1 1/2 cups Currants.
1/2 cup mixed Peel.
1/2 cup Glaze Cherries. (halved)
1 cup tinned Pineapple. (chopped)
1/4 cup Apricots (chopped)
250g Butter.
1 cup Brown Sugar.
1/2 cup Whiskey. (or Brandy)
1/2 cup water.
5 Eggs (lightly beaten)
1 tablespoon Treacle.
1 3/4 cups Plain Flour.
1/3 cup S.R. Flour.
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.

Method....

Sift dry ingredients (flours) together and set aside.

Combine butter, fruit, sugar, whiskey and water in a large saucepan and simmer until sugar has dissolved, stirring all the time. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer with a lid on for ten minutes. (Stirring now and then) Set aside to cool. This is very important as the next step is adding the eggs and we don't want them to cook.

When the fruit is at room temperature, add the eggs and treacle and stir to combine. Then stir in the flours. Spread the mixture in to a greased and lined 23cm round tin. Bake at 150c for about 2 and a half hours. Test with a cake skewer, if it comes out clean, it is ready.

My cake tin was not that large so I had mix left over. So I quickly got cupcake cases ready and put those in the oven at the same time. These were done first of course, but it gave me an excuse to open the oven door and take in the beautiful aromas.