Ingredients for the boiled fruit part
(See the note on Australian half-traditional, half-metric cooking measurements)
• 8oz [250g] butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup marsala all'uovo, or otherwise sweet marsala
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 kilo [1 lb] of mixed dried and candied fruit, mostly glace cherries, raisins and citrus peel, with a bit of pineapple and citron acceptable. See note for more details
Ingredients for the cake part
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour with 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
(or 1 1/4 cups each of plain and self-raising flour)
• a pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
A note on mixed fruit
Packaged fruit cake mixes (in the US at least) often have far too much colourized citron and pineapple and no raisins, in which case it is better to prepare your own. I use two parts fruit mix, one part glace cherries, one part raisins.
Preparation
1. Boiling the fruit
Put the butter in a large saucepan over low heat, and as it starts melting, add the other boiled fruit ingredients and stir steadily but calmy until the butter is fully melted. Increase then heat until the mixture starts boiling, then turn it down and keep simmering for ten minutes. (Watch it as the bicarb make it rise quickly.) Then remove from heat and allow to cool.
2. Assembling the cake
As the fruit mixture cools, preheat the oven, sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a basin, and aside, beat the eggs well. Add the cooled fruit mixture, stir until well mixed, then add beaten eggs and again stir until well mixed. Poor into a greased non-stick (or paper lined) bread loaf tin (or 9"/23cm round cake tin).
3. Baking
Bake at moderate heat (350F/180C) for about one hour and twenty minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean (if in doubt, early is safer than late).
Eating
Contrary to custom in some places, I do not recommend pouring brandy or anything else over this cake.
It should last a month or more after cutting if kept covered.
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