My Mum's Fruit Loaf recipe

My mum used to make this fruit cake when we were kids and it was always a family favourite, especially served oven warm with lots of butter on! You can't beat the aroma of a cake baking in the oven and the cinnamon and nutmeg in this recipe make this cake worth baking just for the smell alone. It is a really easy recipe that is quick to make and the cake is perfect with a cup of tea on a cold autumn afternoon! 

Ingredients

(The recipe says use cups to measure but I always use a normal tea/coffee mug like my mum does - handy if you don't have measuring cups)

1/4 lb mixed fruit or sultanas

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 lb margarine/butter

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup water

Cinnamon/nutmeg (you can use one or both of them - I like to use both)

Method

- pre-heat oven to 180C

- Line and grease a standard loaf tin (you can probably do it neater than me!)

- Boil together water, sugar, butter and fruit in a pan

- Leave to cool

- Sieve together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sprinkle of cinnamon/nutmeg and add to the cooled mixture in the pan. (If you'd prefer an exact measurement for the spices I'd say half a teaspoon)

- stir well until everything is combined

- pour mixture into the lined loaf in and bake for 1 1/4 hours.

- cool on a wire rack before serving

Tip: For fan oven reduce temperature to 170C. If the cake starts to get too brown on top towards the end of the cooking time then loosely cover with foil.