OneGuyFromBarlick

Well, what do you do on a rainy Sunday afternoon? You have a first go at baking a boiled fruit cake!

When we visit our good friends Linda and Neil MacSween for a brew and a natter, Linda often treats us to what I would say is one of the best fruit cakes I have ever tasted! Linda's family is from the North East, South Shields to be exact, I think both her parents were born and raised up at Shields and the family came down to Barlick with her dad getting a job at Rolls like lots of other folk that migrated to the town in the 50's and early 60's. I think the fruit cake recipe came from one of her grandparents.

It starts with fruit, lot's of it! Sultanas, Raisins, Currants and Cherries. All in a pan along with Demerara sugar, butter and a half pint of water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 15 minutes. Take off the hob and allow to cool.



The only other ingredients are a beaten egg and self raising flour, mixed in when the mixture has cooled.



The resultant cake mix fills a 2lb tin.



It goes in the oven on a low temp, gas mark 2 for 1 - 1.25 hours. Linda says an hour is normally enough. It wasn't done at an hour so I moved it up one shelf and gave it another 20 minutes.



Left to cool for a couple of hours then turned out of the tin.



The cake can be eaten as is or eaten as a nice thick slice buttered.

My mother taught Vera to make boiled fruit cakes and I always got the impression they were a wartime variant.....
Like yours, they were good enough to eat.

Now you've done it, and I've just weaned myself of such cakes from Aldi.

That cake was a regular feature of the lads' packed lunch boxes a long time ago.

It's proper with one extra comment despite having 1 hour 20 it could still have done with another 10 minutes. Of course, could be our oven or the shelf setting. It's fully cooked and but could have done with being a bit firmer in the centre. Learning curve for me as I don't normally do big cakes.

Can you give some idea of quantities of ingredients. I'll have to try it. . .

PanBiker wrote: ↑09 Apr 2024, 10:27 It's proper with one extra comment despite having 1 hour 20 it could still have done with another 10 minutes. Of course, could be our oven or the shelf setting. It's fully cooked and but could have done with being a bit firmer in the centre. Learning curve for me as I don't normally do big cakes.

I bought an oven thermometer as I didn't trust the oven, it opened my eyes as to how long it took to warm up. I tend to use the air fryer for most things now but the 'big' oven still gets used for some cooking tasks

More or less our usage Kev, bread, baking and Toad in the Hole.

Tripps wrote: ↑09 Apr 2024, 11:06 Can you give some idea of quantities of ingredients. I'll have to try it. . .

Can't find the recipe I got from Linda but I did find this, wont be much different:

Ellasbetterbakes- Easy Boiled Fruit Cake

I have a lot of dried fruit so I will make one this afternoon, I need to make a loaf as well so two birds with one stone.

Boiled cakes take me back to war time baking..... Streng Verboten these days of course. But looks very very tempting!

I've taken the liberty of editing the webpage at the end of Ian's link, there's quite a bit of waffle before you actually get to the recipe

Here's what you'll need...
20 cm round cake tin
heavy bottomed saucepan
Wooden spoon
nylon sieve
Ingredients you'll need...
Stage 1 ingredients
100 g unsalted butter
150 g dark brown sugar granulated
400 g mixed dried fruit
1½ teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
8 fl oz cold water
Stage 2 ingredients
100 g self raising flour
100 g plain flour all purpose flour
½ teaspoon fine salt
2 medium eggs light beaten
1 tablespoon demerara sugar optional
Here's what we do...
Stage 1
Check your fruit to ensure it is all separated and not stuck together in clumps.
Put all stage 1 ingredients into your saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted and sugar has dissolved.
dried fruit in pan
Bring to a boil and then simmer gently for 1 minute.
Leave to cool.
Stage 2
Heat your oven to 160°C/140°C fan/Gas mark 3
Grease your baking tin with butter and line the base with greaseproof paper.
Sift the flours and salt together.
Add half of the beaten eggs and half of the flour mixture to the stage 1 ingredients and fold in with a wooden spoon.
Add the rest of the eggs and flour and fold in until fully incorporated, do not over mix but do ensure there are no pockets of flour remaining.
Pour the mixture into your cake tin and gently level out.
Sprinkle the demerara sugar over evenly over the top.
Bake for 1 hour and 20 minute, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing and cooling on a cooling rack.

Makes my mouth water just reading the recipe!

Sally reckons its the best fruit cake she has ever had! I must say, I tend to agree.

I did it slightly wrong in that the recipe calls for an optional tablespoon of demerara sugar, (not an option in my book). So I shoved that in the mix, realised after I had done it that it was for the topping to the cake before baking, oh well, it turned out OK anyway.

I'm going to have to make one now, I might chance using granulated Stevia instead of sugar though. It won't be for another week as I'm back on shift tomorrow.

Just had a look and some of the reviews say that it works OK for baking. Is there a dark brown variant?

I had to look Stevia up.....

So did I, does it melt when heated, as in the recipe?

PanBiker wrote: ↑03 Sep 2025, 10:54 So did I, does it melt when heated, as in the recipe?

Granulated Stevia doesn't but I am looking to get some in liquid form, I may have to use a 50/50 mix with some soft brown sugar.

It's in the oven, I used 100g of soft brown sugar and 6 drops of liquid stevia (2 teaspoon equivalent).

It tastes very nice and it's a reduced sugar recipe
As well as replacing a third of the brown sugar with Stevia I didn't sprinkle sugar on top either.

Boxed up and ready to eat with a lump of cheese.

Looking at those pics of what I am sure is some very nice fruit cake I realise that I have completely lost any desire for sweet foods. Just as well!