Boiled Fruit Cake

I have an addiction. Some people have addiction to shopping, others to gambling, me?.... it's cooking. Everyday this week I've had an overwhelming desire to cook. I get really fidgety until I've cooked something! Yesterday I had made my granola by 8am and today a boiled fruit cake was out of the oven by 9.30am. However making granola at 8am probably wasn't the best idea as I forgot to add the vanilla and used greaseproof paper instead of baking parchment and the granola welded itself onto some parts of it. I've also been thinking in detail about Christmas baking. I'm sure I'll be back to normal next week once half term is over!

My good friend Rachel made this boiled fruit cake back in the summer holiday for a camping trip. It was so delicious, I had to have the recipe. It's a wartime recipe (hence the lack of eggs) that her Grandma gave her.

Boiled fruit cake

8oz/225g self raising flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp mixed spice
pinch of salt
4 oz/110g of margarine
4-8oz/110g -225g mixed fruit
4 oz /110g demerara sugar
180ml hot water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1) Preheat oven to 160oc. Sieve flour, nutmeg, mixed spice and salt into bowl. Mix in fruit.

2) Heat margarine, sugar and water into saucepan and heat gently until marg has melted and sugar has dissolved. Boil for 3 min. Allow to cool.

3) Add bicarbonate of soda to cooled sugar mix. Pour into flour mix and combine quickly.

4) Pour cake mix into lined cake tin (7-8 inch diameter). Bake for 1 hour.

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