Fruitcake

In a big saucepan place the butter, dried fruits, orange juice, zest, Muscat and sugar. Mix well. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes. Cool. In a big bowl whisk the eggs and treacle together and mix through the fruit mixture. Fold through the flour, spices and almonds. Grease a 24cm square cake tin and line with two sheets of greaseproof paper coming above the tin. Spoon in the cake mixture. Bake at 160C for 1 hour. Then cover with foil and bake for another hour. After removing from the oven drizzle over extra Muscat.

Serves 14

250g butter

1kg mixed fruit

100g pitted dates, chopped

100g dried apricots, chopped

100g pitted prunes, chopped

1 orange, juice and zest

1 cup liqueur Muscat

1 cup brown sugar

6 eggs

3 tbsp treacle

21/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

100g almonds, chopped

3 tbsp liqueur Muscat