Almond Fruit Cake - serves 10-12

This almond fruit cake is Meg’s version of an old Scottish recipe.

Dundee cake was first sold commercially in the nineteenth century by Keiller’s, a famous marmalade producer, as a way of keeping their staff busy when oranges were out of season.

Lightly fruited and with a high ground-almond content, this is a lovely cut-and-come-again cake, ideal to eat at any time of year.

Equipment

7inch round cake pan, lined with baking parchment

Ingredients

175g salted butter, soft

155g caster sugar

4 eggs, lightly beaten

210g ground almonds

140g plain flour

365g sultanas

115g mixed candied peel

25g crystallized ginger, chopped

24 blanched almonds, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 150c (300f) or Gas2

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and fluffy.

Add the beaten eggs in 2 stages, stirring to a smooth batter each time. With a wooden spoon, fold in the ground almonds and flour, stirring until smooth.

Add the sultanas, mixed candied peel and ginger and stir until evenly distributed.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan and smooth level with a palette knife. Decorate the top of the cake with the almonds. Bake in the preheated oven for about 2 hours - the cake will turn a good colour well before this, but be patient and test the middle with a skewer. Only when the skewer comes out clean is the cake ready. If it doesn’t come out clean, give it another 5-10 minutes. The high ground-almond content in this recipe means there is often an oily, under-cooked appearance to the cake when first removed from the oven, but don’t worry - the skewer does not lie and the oil will re-absorb into the cake on cooling!

This will keep for up to 14 days in an airtight container.