Moist Christmas Cake

Ingredients

Basic fruit mixture

500g sultanas
200g dried currants
200g raisins, chopped
125g seeded dried dates, chopped
125g seeded prunes, chopped
125g glace cherries, quartered
60g glace apricots, chopped
60g glace pineapple, chopped
60g glace ginger, chopped
60g mixed peel
225g medium apples, peeled and grated
120g fig jam
1 tbsp finely grated orange rind
30ml lemon juice
220g brown sugar
2 tsp mixed spice
150ml Grand Marnier

Other ingredients

125g butter, melted then cooled
5 eggs, beaten lightly
375g plain flour
2 tbsp Grand Marnier
 

Method

Combine the ingredients for the basic fruit mixture in a large bowl.

Preheat oven to slow (140-150deg C, gas mark 1-2); line base and sides of deep 22cm-square cake tin with one thickness brown paper and two thicknesses baking paper, extending papers 5cm above sides of pan.

Add butter and eggs to fruit mixture and stir well: add half the flour, well sifted and stir into mixture; add the remaining flour, well sifted, and stir into mixture.

Spread mixture into prepared cake tin; level top with spatula. Bake, uncovered, in slow oven about three hours.

Remove cake from oven; while still hot, brush with liqueur; cover cake with foil and allow to cool in tin overnight.