BLACK CAKE RECIPE

700g essential Waitrose Mixed Fruit

50g Cooks' Ingredients Mixed Peel
100g Waitrose LOVE Life Brazil Nuts or Waitrose LOVE Life Roasted Peanuts
(unsalted)
300ml dark rum, plus extra for feeding the cake
225g butter
225g demerara sugar
6 large eggs
5-6 tbsp black treacle
225g plain flour
1 x tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice, or more to taste

Method
1. Place the mixed fruit, mixed peel and nuts in a food processor and blitz
until evenly processed. Place in a bowl and pour over 150ml of the rum,
cover and set aside to soak overnight or in the fridge for up to a week,
stirring occasionally.
2. Preheat the oven to 150C, gas mark 2. Grease and double line a 20cm
square cake tin with baking parchment.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and pale in colour. Add
the eggs one at a time, beating between additions. Tip in the soaked fruit
and nuts with the soaking liquid and stir well. Stir in the black treacle to
make the cake as dark as you wish.
4. Sift together the flour, baking powder and mixed spice and gently fold it
into the mixture a tablespoon at a time. Continue until you have a soft
dropping consistency, adding more rum as required. Pour the mixture into
the cake tin and bake for 1-2 hours, until a skewer inserted into the centre
comes out clean.
5. While the cake is still warm, make holes all over the top of the cake with a
skewer then drizzle over some more rum. Allow to cool completely, then
wrap in several layers of greaseproof paper. In the weeks leading up to
Christmas, 'feed the cake' occasionally by drizzling over more rum.
6. The cake can be iced in the traditional British way, or given a thick layer of
marzipan with dried tropical fruits and nuts arranged on top and glazed with
apricot glaze.