This is another of those ‘I bought a little bit too much over Christmas so how can I use it up’ type posts!  This recipe used up the dried fruit that I bought for the Christmas cake (which I’ll  get around to posting at a more suitable time of year!).  I can’t believe that, apart from said Christmas cake, I’ve never made a fruit cake.  This one is quite light – perfect for putting in your lunchbox for work.  You could make this in a more traditional round tin but I find that making cakes in a loaf tin means I’m far more likely to put a piece in for lunch as it fits better.

You will need:  225g self-raising flour, 110g butter, 110g demerara sugar, 240g mixed dried fruit (you can include cheried in this mixture – I didn’t, none left over from Christmas!), 1 egg, 70ml milk and 1tsp mixed spice.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.  Cream together the butter and sugar, add the egg, mixed spice and 150g of the flour.  Mix together thoroughly.  Place the mixed  dried fruit on top of the batter together with the other 75g of flour.  Gently mix this in – you will find that the flour coats the fruit so that it doesn’t sink when you come to cook it.  Bake for 1hr or until a skewer placed in the centre of the cake comes out clean.