Regular Cake

When my youngest daughter was little, she had a digestive issue that caused me to take her to the doctors. The doctor determined that she needed to drink more fluids and eat more fibre. As she is commonly known at home as “the fruit monster” and prefers wholemeal bread, rice and pasta, it seemed unlikely that fibre was the problem. So I upped her fluid intake but still decided to see if there was any way I could cram a bit more fibre into her diet. The doctor had advised that I should feed her dried fruit such as prunes, dates and figs so I took this on board and combined them all, and some other dried fruit, into a cake. We were about to go away on holiday at the time so taking away a nice, sturdy fruitcake seemed like the perfect solution and, of course, it was something we could all enjoy. It seemed only appropriate, given the circumstances, to name this cake “Regular Cake”.

My daughter’s digestive issues were short lived, I’m pleased to say, but the cake has become a firm favourite and is one I always turn to when we are going on holiday, particularly for our 3 week summer holiday. It travels well and keeps well and is a handy way to use up whatever open packs of dried fruit I have in the cupboards. When we leave it is the end of the soft fruit season and I have been busy making fresh jam and light fruity desserts such as cheesecakes. When we return, we face a glut of courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes and tree fruit, all in desperate need of being transformed into chutney. It is nice, therefore, to have used up the old packs of dried fruit, ready to buy fresh packs for the chutneys.

I usually have to hand dried apricots (from Apple & Apricot Chutney), dates (from all sorts of chutney), figs (from Figgy Pear Mincemeat), sultanas (from various chutneys) and mixed dried fruit (from mincemeats) but you can use any kind of dried fruit as long as the totals add up the same. The recipe also calls for 85g of marmalade – something I always have to hand – so any flavour of marmalade is fine. And, it is perfectly fine to substitute the orange in the recipe for a lemon, depending on what you have available. The overall flavour will vary slightly depending on the ingredients you throw into it but whatever you use it will be a deliciously fruity cake with a citrus undertone.

Regular Cake

200g softened unsalted butter

200g light muscovado sugar

3 eggs

Zest and juice of 1 orange

85g orange marmalade

100g dried figs, chopped

100g dried prunes, chopped

100g dried apricots, chopped

100g dried dates, chopped

50g glace cherries, rinsed, dried and chopped

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 tsp mixed spice 

Preheat oven to 160°C and line a round cake tin. Cream together the butter and sugar then add the eggs (one at a time), orange juice and zest, marmalade and then the dried fruit. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir well. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for about 2 hours until a skewer comes out clean.