​Quick Fruit Cake

"I've been making this cake for years!  It's made by boiling the fruit first and it always turns out nice and moist."

We have finished the Christmas cake and I've made some quick and easy fruit cakes , some large and some small. The recipe is on my new website # dried fruit #butter # cake

A video posted by Val Stones (@valcake.walks) on Jan 12, 2017 at 12:39pm PST

• 100g sultanas
• 100g raisins
• 100g currants
• 100g soft brown sugar  (light or dark , the light sugar gives a lighter coloured cake and the dark gives a darker slightly richer flavour)
• 30g cherries
• 100g unsalted butter
• 125ml water
• 2 medium eggs
• 200g self-raising flour
• 1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon whiskey (use your favourite – I use whatever him indoors isn’t drinking at the moment!)

1. Set your oven to 160C. I use a 2lb loaf tin or you can use a 14–16cm round tin – grease and line it now.
   
2. Place fruit (but not the cherries!), sugar, butter and water in a microwave bowl and on full power cook in 5-minute bursts three times, stirring in between.
   
3. Allow to cool the stir in the whiskey and add the two beaten eggs.
   
4. Sift the flour, spices and cherries into the mixture and fold in.
   
5. Pour the mixture into the tin, slightly hollow out the top of the cake and place in the oven.
   
6. Bake for 40 minutes before checking by listening (if it’s still singing loudly put it back in for another ten minutes then check again). If you don’t like listening to cake then use a skewer – it should come out clean.