Mary Poppins makes Dundee Cake with Pineapple

Mary Poppins in the Kitchen: A Cookery Book with a Story, P. L. Travers and Maurice Moore-Betty (culinary consultant), illustrated by Mary Shepard 1975 London

Dundee Cake

125g butter, softened; 125g granulated sugar; 3 eggs; 100g plain flour; 100g raisins; 100g currants; 3 tblspn mixed glazed fruits (I used glacé pineapple and ginger, and crystallised mango); 2 tblsp flour to be mixed with the fruits; loaf tin, approx. 18cm x 8cm

Heat the oven to 150°C, 300°F, gas mark 2.

Line the bottom and sides of tin with greaseproof paper. If it is not the non-sticking kind, coat it lightly with butter.

Beat the butter and sugar together – this is called creaming – till lemon coloured and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat strenuously after each one. Stir in the flour little by little and beat again. There is a lot of beating, and you may need help. Take turns.

In a separate bowl mix all the fruits together. Sprinkle with the flour and mix thoroughly so that each individual piece of fruit is well coated. This will prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the pan as the cake bakes. Stir the fruit into the batter and spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 2 ¼ hours in the middle of the oven. Look at it after half an hour, and if it becomes too dark on top, cover it with brown paper – a paper bag will do – or foil. Test it with a toothpick. It is cooked when the toothpick, stuck into the middle of the cake, comes out dry. Cool and turn out on a wire tray.