In this week’s shared cookery column, JULIAN COLE averts a scandal as he introduces a recipe for boiled whisky cake.

THERE have been more than enough scandals in journalism lately. So let’s get this into the open: my wife made the cake in the photograph, although I have made this recipe before.

Phew! That’s better. I didn’t wish to be unwittingly responsible for Fruitcake-Gate, as it would surely have become known.

Experiments with a cake of my own invention left me with something not yet good enough. We shall return to that one once I’ve perfected the recipe.

In the meantime, here is this very simple and delicious fruitcake. The moistness of the finished product comes from boiling some of the ingredients before baking.

Ingredients

10oz (275g) raisins and currants
8fl oz (225ml) water
8oz (225g) light or dark soft brown sugar
4oz (100g) margarine
8oz (225g) plain flour sifted
2 teaspoons mixed spice
One-and-a-half teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
One-and-a-half teaspoons ground ginger
Two large eggs, beaten
2fl oz (50ml) whisky (anything basic will do – hands off the malt).

Method

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3, 325 F, 160C. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin (better still use one of those ready-made disposable cake liners).

Put mixed fruit, water, sugar and margarine into a pan and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Leave to cook for a few minutes.

Add a little of the flour, the mixed spice, bicarbonate of soda and ginger, then mix and leave to stand until cool. Add the beaten eggs, the whisky and the remaining flour, mix and turn into prepared tin.

Bake for one-and-a-half hours until a skewer comes out clean (may require another 15 minutes baking). Remove from oven and turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

Like many other cake recipes in the Cole household, this one comes from a battered copy of the National Trust Book of Tea-Time Recipes.