Fruit de la Fruit Cake – The Pink Whisk Challenge and Name a Day Campaign

One of the most memorial bakes from my childhood is my mum’s Fruit Cake. So when I saw the latest Pink Whisk Challenge, I thought that it would be the ideal entry. Ruth from The Pink Whisk has connected this month’s challenge to the Name a Day campaign which has been launched by Save The Children UK – a new campaign which is pushing David Cameron to name a day when he will host a Global Hunger Summit with the aim of ending world hunger. I have named a day so why not have not visit their site and name a day too?

Ruth (who is currently in Rwanda raising awareness of the hunger and malnutrition crisis there amongst children) decided to make this month’s challenge one of Family Favourites, and all recipes contributed will be published into a Save The Children e-book which will be sold to raise money and awareness of the campaign. Therefore this is where my mum’s Fruit Cake comes in – a massive favourite among friends and family that both she and I love to make and share. It is super easy, super quick and keeps for longer than the average cake.

Ingredients:

225g self-raising flour (sieved)
115g caster sugar
115g butter (cubed)
115g mixed fruit
25g glace cherries (roughly chopped)
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 tsp mixed spice
Pinch of salt
3 tbsp milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and grease and line a tin (either round or square). Mix together the sugar, flour, mixed spice and salt, then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the mixed fruit and glace cherries and create a well in the middle. Add the eggs and milk into the well and beat into the mixture until all combined.

Spoon the mixture into the tin and create a small dip in the middle to prevent it rising too much. Bake in the oven for between 45 minutes s to 1 hour, or until it is brown on the top and a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the tin and store in a cake tin for up to a week.

This cake is less dense than your normal fruit cake and has a lovely crumbly sponge, perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner: enjoy