By Shoestring Jane
This is my favourite easy fruit cake. I make it about once a month. You throw all the ingredients in and mix them up. It couldn’t be simpler and has never failed me.
Ingredients
225 g/8 oz self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
140 g/5 oz brown sugar
2 eggs
140 g/5 oz butter or margarine
340 g/12 oz dried mixed fruit
110 ml/4 fl oz milk
Gas mark 2/150C for about an hour and a quarter (check after an hour, as you don’t want to over-cook it).
Grease and line an 8 inch/20 cm round cake tin.
Place all ingredients in a large bowl and beat well until mixed.
Pour the mixture into the tin and smooth the top.
Cook until firm.
This easy fruit cake couldn’t be simpler and is fail safe as long as you don’t cook it too high.
A gluten-free version
Substitute the wheat flour with 170g/6 oz GF self-raising and 60 g/2 oz ground almonds and increased the amount of milk to 140 ml/5 fl oz.
cloudthyme says
Nice! Looks delicious.
Kate says
Im glad you have had a bit more luck, I will be trying your recipe myself. GF bread I have struggled with but I recently found I can tolerate Khorasan bread, its an ancient grain wheat and hasnt been over refined and mucked about with so most people who cant take wheat are ok with this. You can get the flour in Waitrose or decent health food shops and the bread freezes really well.
Fiona says
Hi Jane, I made this cake on Thursday, and while I found it a bit bland, my husband really enjoyed it.
I followed your suggestions for gf flour and ground almonds. It worked, as you would expect, and it tends to make a cake lighter, though normally I just do a straight swap of Dove’s gf flour (though I have heard good things about ASDA flour) and the ordinary flour. I found I had to increase the cooking time by about half an hour. Anyway, it the light of my husband’s enthusiasm, I expect to make it again soon.