Super quick all in one fruit cake recipe

[Green Aura]

I think it's because you chuck everything in at the same time, Ina.

More traditional cakes have you creaming butter and sugar then slowly adding eggs and flour and then folding fruit etc in at the end.

Pain in the bum and I can't tell sufficient difference with the end result to warrant all the extra effort.

[ina]

Mmmh. Have to check those other recipes - I think they used butter, and it's difficult to mix that with everything else at once without doing something like creaming or melting first! I tend to use oil anyway, unless I need the special butter flavour. Much easier.

Just to be pernickety - shouldn't it be called "all at once" then - because in traditional recipes all the ingredients go into one, too - even if not at once?! (Sorry - only a bloody foreigner can come up with stupid ideas like this... )

[Millymollymandy]

Or just "speedy fruit cake"?! I've never made one so I don't know how they are traditionally made, which leads to my next question........


What do you use for 'mixed fruits'? Any old mix of whatever dried fruit there is in the cupboard like sultanas, dates, prunes, apricots? Or does the UK sell 'mixed fruit' in a packet or something?

And what's an oz in grams again? I can't do old fashioned recipes any more!

[ina]

Or does the UK sell 'mixed fruit' in a packet or something?

And what's an oz in grams again? I can't do old fashioned recipes any more!

Yes, they do sell mixed fruits! It's generally meant to be a mix of sultanas, currants and raisins (mostly with some mixed peel thrown in - but some recipes mentioned them separately). I generally just use what's in the cupboard. Tend to have a lot of raisins lately... (Free, out of date - don't ask! )

An oz is roughly 25g - a bit more than that, but this is easiest to work out.

[Millymollymandy]

Thanks Ina, I don't really like that kind of dried fruit very much - prefer things like dates and prunes. Think I'll give this recipe a miss because if I'm going to make cake and eat it there are many other cakes out there that I like better than fruit cake (the kind with sultanas, raisins and currants in)! The pumpkin cake I make is similar to a fruit cake actually come to think of it, it contains raisins and mixed spice.......

I don't have any weighing scales that do Imperial (obviously!) and have thought only in grams for a long time now so never have a clue with imperial measures any more! I always end up having to look through old recipes trying to find one in dual measures which will 'translate' for me!

[ina]

I don't have any weighing scales that do Imperial (obviously!) and have thought only in grams for a long time now so never have a clue with imperial measures any more! I always end up having to look through old recipes trying to find one in dual measures which will 'translate' for me!

Believe me, if you live in Britain you have to know both! Even my scientist friends, who work perfectly well in "proper" weights while at work, suddenly forget all about it when they enter a kitchen....

[Millymollymandy]

Believe me, if you live in Britain you have to know both!

I disagree with that, my mother and my mother in law have got along fine all their lives knowing only Imperial measurements - don't think they'd know a gram if it hit them in the face .....

[ina]

Sorry - should have qualified that: if you are not British and live in Britain, you have to know both!

[Millymollymandy]

Sorry - should have qualified that: if you are not British and live in Britain, you have to know both!

Well I think you should now go and live in America, Ina, so you can learn all about cups and know your weight in pounds alone instead of stones (or kilos!). I can't do my weight in pounds unless I have a calculator (I mean, 14 times table! ) although I do still tend to think in stones for my weight - my bathroom scales have metric and imperial on! Be a bit hard to weigh out 6 oz flour on them though.

[ina]

Totally off topic - I was weighing out flour in half milligrams yesterday. In the lab, ok - not in the kitchen - I don't take my weight control quite that far!

[Millymollymandy]

Kitchen scales couldn't cope with that anyway!

You've got a strange job though Ina. Suppose it makes a change from lambing.