Pineapple in the Christmas presents and the cake

Ann's friend Brad presented her with these two fabulous salt and pepper shaker sets this Christmas!

 

The Australian Women’s Weekly presents . . . Cakes for all occasions from our Leila Howard Test Kitchen 1971

Irish Rich Fruit Cake

“The famous fruit cake of Ireland is one of the best known of all fruit mixtures. Beautifully moist, it will keep for months.”

175g butter or substitute; ¾ cup castor sugar; 4 eggs; 1 2/3 cups plain flour; 350g raisins; 350g sultanas; 50g chopped walnuts; 50g glace cherries; 50g mixed peel; 50g prunes; 100g chopped dates; 50g crystallised pineapple; 1 dstspn grated lemon rind; ½ cooking apple; 2 tblspn lemon juice; 1 dstspn grated orange rind; 3 tblspn orange juice; 50g ground almonds; ½ tspn salt; ½ tspn ground nutmeg; ½ tspn cinnamon; ½ cup rum or whisky; caramel

Peel and chop apple finely; halve cherries. Mix all fruits in a large bowl. Add orange and lemon rind and juice. Put in large screwtop jar, and pour ¼ cup rum or whisky over. Screw cap securely in place, store for 3 weeks if possible. Reverse jar each day.

(Fruit can be used after 3 days, but the longer it is left the better the flavour.)

Cream butter and sugar until soft and white. Add eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Sift together flour, spices, salt, and ground almonds. Fold into creamed mixture. Fold in prepared fruits. Fold in caramel mixture. Line deep 20cm cake tin, bringing paper 3cm above top of tin.

Pour mixture in and spread top level. Bake in slow oven 3 ½ hours or until skewer, comes out clean. Cool in tin on a wire rack, then pour remainder of rum over. Wrap in foil, store in an airtight tin.

Caramel: heat ¼ cup sugar and 150ml water over low heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, and boil until mixture darkens. Cool, use in cake as directed.