Christmas is fast approaching, so getting into the spirit of the season I decided to bake one of my very favourite christmas treats - a moist, delicious boiled fruit cake. For such a long time I wasn't a fan of fruitcake - it can be dry and just not really that nice, but this recipe is moist and flavoursome and just good. It also holds special meaning, as it is my great-grandmother's recipe that she would make each year, and which she gave to me about twenty years ago. My great grandmother passed away earlier this year, just a few months shy of turning 100 in August, and making the cake today made me happy, the smell reminded me of her little kitchen, and all the treats we'd get when we'd visit. Wherever you are Grandma, we miss you, and we think of you.
Here's her recipe;
1/2 cup sherry
1lb (500g) mixed dried fruit*
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
4oz (125g) butter
1 cup cold, mashed cooked pumpkin
1tbs golden syrup
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup plain flour
1 cup beer
1tsp bi-carb soda
1/4tsp salt
Place the fruit, sugar, butter, golden syrup, salt and beer in a saucepan. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes and then allow it to cool thoroughly. *After the fruit is cooked you can add a few chopped dates to the mixture while it's still hot.
Add the lightly beaten eggs, pumpkin, bi-carb and sifted flours to the cooled fruit mixture and mix well.
Bake for 1 3/4 hours in a moderate oven. Pour the sherry over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.
What I haven't told you yet, one of the very best things about this cake, is that you can give the flavour lovely subtle variations through a few different means. Over the years I've used boiled and roasted pumpkin, I try different types of beer (imagine the difference between the Corona and the Guinness versions), and I've used a gorgeous imported sherry which blew the other cakes I'd made right out of the water. I hope you have fun with it, enjoy it, and think about someone important to you as you make it. That's what christmas is all about really - the people important to you.
- Kath
