Nanna's No-Fail Fruit Cake

While I was in Blenheim, I sourced Mum's copy of my Nanna's No-Fail Fruit Cake - it's a lovely light fruit cake, quite suitable as a Christmas cake, a wedding cake, or any other occasion that a fruit cake is required.

So, here it is...

Ingredients:
3/4 lb (340g) butter
3/4 lb (340g) brown sugar
1¼ lb (570g) flour
6 eggs
600mL dry ginger ale
1½ teaspoons baking powder
3 lb (1.36kg) mixed fruit
1 teaspoon lemon essence
1 teaspoon almond essence
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon wine or brandy

Instructions:
1. Soak fruit in ginger ale, essences and wine/brandy overnight.
2. Cream butter and sugar, add egg yolks. then whites beaten stiffly.
3. Add flour, fruiit and baking powder last of all.
4. Bake for 4 hours in a slow overn 120°C.

This makes quite a big cake - my large tin is about 11" square by 3" deep. You will need to line the tin well with thick brown paper - first butter it, then I always put two layers of supermarket bag paper in the bottom, and one layer around the sides about 1 - 1.5" higher than the cake tin. Try the cake with a thin metal spike of some sort, a knitting needle is a good thing, and if it comes out clean the cake is cooked, if not leave it in a bit longer, perhaps turn the oven off and leave it to cool in the oven - this is often enough to finish it off if not quite cooked in the time.

When you take it out, don't remove the brown paper until you are ready to use the cake. Wrap it up in newspaper ot something and put it away until Christmas (or whatever occasion you are making it for). Best made about a month or 6 weeks before needed.

It's quite an easy recipe to divide if you don't want to make such a big cake, and it doesn't really mind if you leave out the wine, brandy or essences, or add them all for good measure. You can also add nuts if you wish.