OneGuyFromBarlick

Well, what do you do on a rainy Sunday afternoon? You have a first go at baking a boiled fruit cake!

When we visit our good friends Linda and Neil MacSween for a brew and a natter, Linda often treats us to what I would say is one of the best fruit cakes I have ever tasted! Linda's family is from the North East, South Shields to be exact, I think both her parents were born and raised up at Shields and the family came down to Barlick with her dad getting a job at Rolls like lots of other folk that migrated to the town in the 50's and early 60's. I think the fruit cake recipe came from one of her grandparents.

It starts with fruit, lot's of it! Sultanas, Raisins, Currants and Cherries. All in a pan along with Demerara sugar, butter and a half pint of water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 15 minutes. Take off the hob and allow to cool.



The only other ingredients are a beaten egg and self raising flour, mixed in when the mixture has cooled.



The resultant cake mix fills a 2lb tin.



It goes in the oven on a low temp, gas mark 2 for 1 - 1.25 hours. Linda says an hour is normally enough. It wasn't done at an hour so I moved it up one shelf and gave it another 20 minutes.



Left to cool for a couple of hours then turned out of the tin.



The cake can be eaten as is or eaten as a nice thick slice buttered.

My mother taught Vera to make boiled fruit cakes and I always got the impression they were a wartime variant.....
Like yours, they were good enough to eat.

Now you've done it, and I've just weaned myself of such cakes from Aldi.

That cake was a regular feature of the lads' packed lunch boxes a long time ago.

It's proper with one extra comment despite having 1 hour 20 it could still have done with another 10 minutes. Of course, could be our oven or the shelf setting. It's fully cooked and but could have done with being a bit firmer in the centre. Learning curve for me as I don't normally do big cakes.

Can you give some idea of quantities of ingredients. I'll have to try it. . .

PanBiker wrote: ↑09 Apr 2024, 10:27 It's proper with one extra comment despite having 1 hour 20 it could still have done with another 10 minutes. Of course, could be our oven or the shelf setting. It's fully cooked and but could have done with being a bit firmer in the centre. Learning curve for me as I don't normally do big cakes.

I bought an oven thermometer as I didn't trust the oven, it opened my eyes as to how long it took to warm up. I tend to use the air fryer for most things now but the 'big' oven still gets used for some cooking tasks

More or less our usage Kev, bread, baking and Toad in the Hole.