It’s festive season, and no matter whether you celebrate Christmas or you don’t, this time of year is a great excuse for fruit cake.
If, of course, one ever needs an excuse for fruit cake…
This recipe is a wonderful one, given to me years ago by a friend who would use slices of the cake as fuel during her long rides when she was training for Ironman. It’s packed to the brim with energy, and has zero fat. I’ve added my own tweaks with the mixed spice, cloves and orange zest, and I think it pretty much hits fruit cake perfection!

Ingredients

500 g dried fruit mix
1 pot of black tea
¾ cup Muscavado sugar
1  egg
1½ cups self-raising flour
½ tsp  salt
1 tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground cloves
zest of 1 orange

Method

• Soak the dried fruit mix in a bowl of hot black tea – enough to just cover the fruit. Leave to cool, cover and store in fridge overnight.
• Fold the egg into the fruit mixture.
• Mix all dry ingredients and fold into mixture.
• Add the orange zest.
• Spoon into a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper.
• Bake for 2hrs at 150 deg.

Tip:  this recipe works with any size loaf tin, even mini ones (as I used in the photo) – just watch the timing and adjust accordingly (less time for smaller tin, etc.)