Fruit Cake

This beautiful cake will get you bogged down with orders for Christmas - don't let anyone else taste it until it is too late.

Ingredients:

• 75g Vegetable fat
• 100g Raw Cane Sugar
• 100mls Orange Juice
• 100g Wholewheat Flour
• 1 tablespoon mixed spice
• 1kg Mixed Dried Fruit

Method:

Mix the fat and the sugar together in a bowl until they have a creamy consistency. Add all of the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Either:

1. bake in a tin lined with greased proof paper for 3 hours in an oven at gas mark 3 (this may burn around the edges depending upon how reliable your oven is), turning out onto a wire tray to cool; or,
2. put in a plastic microwave tray, lined with clingfilm (yes, that's correct) and bake on full power for around 10 minutes (depending upon the power of your oven), turning out onto a wire tray to cool and then taking off the clingfilm (this will retain the moisture).

Let the cake cool completely and then cover in marzipan (stuck down with apricot jam) and icing.

Variations:

1. Add brandy to the cake (it can take quite a bit). This has to be done with the microwave oven and clingfilm method as there is too great an opportunity for the alcohol simply to evaporate away if you bake it in a conventional oven for three hours.
2. Add extra ingredients such as:
   1. cherries
   2. almonds
   3. extra dried fruit, possibly some exotic types such as mango and pineapple
3. Add brandy to the apricot jam - this will be sealed in with the icing.
4. Slice the cake in two and add a gratuitous filling of some sort.

Storage:

It will keep in a cool place for up to three months

Serving suggestions:

Serve with strong wine or spirits