• Because of not being able to see many friends or family these last 3 years, I have not made an English style Christmas Cake for ages.
• I have just been making one for my friend who is about to celebrate a significant birthday and loves fruit cake.
• I found that the usual amount was quite a lot and I had forgotten how hard it was to mix it all up.
• I thought that next time I would just make a half sized one.
• Rather than halve the amounts ‘on the hoof’  I thought I would write this up with the half sized amount.
• Decided it was better to do this now whilst things are fresh in my mind.
• Of course I will not have the timings for baking but I can give estimates and check these later when I make this size of  cake.

• It is a very moist cake and therefore it will only keep for about 2 months.

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• However if you want to add marzipan & icing then you should make it about 2- 3 weeks in advance, to give time for this to be done.

Ingredients

• 450g mixture of currants, raisins & sultanas
• 100g chopped mixed peel
• 100g glacé cherries cut in half
• Grated rind of 1 lemon & 1 orange
• 1 medium cooking apple, peeled and coarse grated
• 100g fine grated carrots
• 1 tablespoon rum
• 60 ml strong cold tea (I use a scented one like Earl Grey)
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• 175 g Butter
• 175 g soft dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons of black treacle
• 3 large eggs – beaten
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• 200g plain flour – sieved
• 1/4 level teaspoon salt
• 3 level teaspoons mixed spice
• ½ level teaspoon of cinnamon
• ¼  grated nutmeg
• ½ tablespoon cocoa  – yes cocoa! – sieved
• 1 tablespoon ground almonds 

Method

• Put all the fruit, rinds, carrots, rum & tea into large bowl,  mix and leave for 15 minutes.
• Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 2 – 150^oC.
• Grease and line the cake tin – 20cm or 18cm square.
• In another  large bowl, cream the margarine and sugar, beat in the treacle and eggs.
• Mix all the dry ingredients together & fold them in using a large metal spoon.
• Fold in the fruit mix using a large metal spoon
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• Put all the cake mixture into the tin to fill the shape and smooth the top.
• 20 cm square – try 1hr 30mins
• 18 cm square  -try 1hr 15 mins 
• The above are guides as it does depend on your oven – you need to check earlier.
• Leave to cool completely in the tin.
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• Wrap in several layers of foil to store.

Decorating the cake

• It depends on who is coming and whether there are  lots of marzipan & icing lovers on how much I decorate the cake.
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• Sometimes I just dust the top with icing sugar.
• See the full sized recipe for more details.
• Cut down the amounts to suit the cake size.