Everyone has the best fruitcake recipe ever, but this one is really it. It is very dark and quite heavy.
Courtesy of Rita Read.
Ingredients
250 grams butter
250 grams brown sugar
1 tablespoon treacle
5 eggs
½ cup self raising flour
250 grams plain flour
1 pinch salt
1 dessertspoon cinnamon
1 dessertspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon nutmeg
500 grams sultanas
250 grams raisins
250 grams currants
250 grams chopped glace cherries, cut into fours
250 grams almond slivers
250 grams mixed peel
½ cup brandy plus ½ to one cup to be poured into cake when cooked
Method
Cream butter, sugar, and treacle. Add eggs one at a time beating well. Add sifted dry ingredients and the fruit alternately in about six lots. Add the ½ cup brandy last.
Line a 9 inch square tin with one layer of brown paper and two layers of white buttered paper.
Preheat oven for 20 minutes at 220C
Bake for 4 hours at 135C on second lowest shelf.
When cake comes out of oven prick top and pour in ½ cup brandy.
When cake is cold leave paper on and store in tin for 2 to 3 weeks before using.
Before icing, pour in another ½ cup brandy.
Note: whilst cooking, cover cake with brown paper after 2 – 3 hours.
