Both ways fruit cake

When I was a kid, we always used to visit my Auntie Lorna and Uncle Keith for Sunday tea.

It was the traditional English working class Sunday tea, with sandwiches - open sandwiches made with bread cobs (or bread rolls if you're not from round here), crisps, boiled eggs, pork pie, sausage rolls, salad, trifle, stuff like that. And always cake.

We brought the cake, every week. From the age of about five, the cake was my Sunday morning job. I'd do all the measuring and mixing and mum would do all the oven bits. From seven I could do the whole thing myself.

It was my great-grandmother that taught my mum, and she taught me. And the love of baking has stayed with me ever since. I've always liked the enjoyment it gives people. Plus - cake, yum!

And so back to Sunday tea. Usually I'd make a fruit cake, because that's Uncle Keith's favourite. He'd eat huge slices of it at tea, and if there was any left he'd take it to work to eat with his lunch.

I remember Mum finding a new recipe for fruit cake in a magazine. Basically you just mixed everything together and chucked it in a tin. I thought this was cheating - cake tastes better if you've had to work hard to make it! I'll admit though, that method is much easier and quicker and still tastes pretty good... so I'm going to share both with you.

6oz sugar (brown is best, but white is also fine)
6oz butter or margarine, softened
3 eggs
6oz mixed fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants, candied peel)
2oz glacé cherries, halved
2oz chopped mixed nuts
12oz self-raising flour
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

The Hard Way

You'll also need 1 teabag.

1) Make a cupful of strong tea, and leave to cool. Soak the fruit and cherries in the tea overnight, stirring a couple of times. Drain the fruit well and reserve the tea.

2) Grease a 1lb loaf tin and pre-heat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.

3) In a large bowl, cream together the butter/margarine and sugar until slightly paler.

4) Beat in the eggs one at a time, getting as much air in as possible. It isn't as critical as when you're making a Victoria sponge because a fruit cake will never rise as much, but a little effort will make a difference. Don't worry if it curdles, it's not the end of the world! Happens to me all the time.

5) Put the drained fruit in a sieve over the bowl, add a few tablespoons of flour and shake until all the fruit has a covering of flour (this apparently stops the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake as it cooks), then add it to the mixture. Sift in the remaining flour, the nuts and the spices.

6) Fold everything into the mixture with a metal spoon. You'll need to use some of the leftover tea to get the mixture to the correct consistency, that is so a lump of it falls off a spoon with minimal encouragement.

7) Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

8) Cool in the tin on a wire rack.

The Easy Way

You'll also need milk or orange juice.

1) Grease a 1lb loaf tin and pre-heat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.

2) Melt the butter/margarine.

3) Put all ingredients into a large bowl and mix until combined. You'll need to use milk or juice to get the right consistency, as above.

4) Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

5) Cool in the tin on a wire rack. See? How easy was that?

I recommend this in the afternoon, with a nice cup of tea. I like to spread the slices with a little butter.