A tidy recipe for fruit cake

Back to the Welsh recipes, and this is a classic: Bara Brith. However, as that basically means it's a recipe for fruit cake, I think its Welshness is a little spurious. Added to that, my recipe for it is out of a book. That's probably because I've only started eating fruit cake in the last couple of years - and I don't tend to cook things that I really don't like to eat (how can you taste test things if they're always going to taste bad to you?). But this is a very tasty, very easy recipe - and it fills the house with the smell of toffee. I should plug the book: Traditional teatime recipes by Jane Pettigrew. It's a National Trust book and it's full of recipes that make me nostalgic for things I've never eaten. Powerful stuff...

Bara Brith (900g/2lb loaf)

350g (12oz) mixed fruit
350ml (12 fl oz) tea
100g (4oz) butter
100g (4oz) light soft brown sugar
50ml (2 fl oz) milk
1 tbsp black treacle
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
2 eggs, beaten

Soak the fruit in the tea overnight.
Grease and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin.
Put the fruit, butter, sugar, milk and treacle in a pan (I like to use a large casserole so I can use it for all the mixing), bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (GM4).
Add the flour, mixed spice and beaten eggs to the fruit mix and beat well with a wooden spoon. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and bake (just below the middle of the oven) for 1 to 1 1/4 hours until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes and to cool completely on a wire rack.

A recipe for bakestones

It seems only right that the first recipe on this blog is for bakestones - or Welsh cakes, in proper Saesneg. This recipe is the one my mother uses and the one she has passed on to me (together with the bakestone to cook them on).

Welsh cakes

8oz (225g) self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
4oz (125g) butter (or half butter, half lard)
3oz (75g) sugar
3oz (75g) currants (or raisins)
1 egg, beaten
milk (if needed)
pinch of mixed spice

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and mixed spice. Rub in the butter. Add the sugar and the currants. Bind the mixture with the egg (and a little milk if necessary) to make a stiff dough. Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick and cut into 2 1/2 inch rounds. Bake on a moderately hot bakestone (or heavy frying pan or under a medium grill) for 3-5 mins each side (until patched golden brown). Sprinkle with sugar. Best served warm.