Makes 1 large cake

A cake to bake now for the weekend as it requires a few days of maturation to bring out the very best flavour. Use Guinness or any other stout, or Old Knucker from the local Arundel Brewery.


500ml bottle Arundel Brewery’s Old Knucker, Black Sheep Riggwelter ale, or stout of your choice
500g mixed cake fruit
3 large eggs
150g butter at room temperature
150g light muscovado sugar
250g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2-3 tbsp marmalade
25g toasted flaked almonds

1 Open the beer, pour half into a glass and drink it whilst making the cake. Soak the fruit in a bowl in 150ml of the remaining beer.
2 Preheat the oven to gas mark 3, 160℃, 325℉. Lightly butter a large loaf tin, 19cm x 9cm x 6cm, and cut a piece of baking parchment or an old butter paper to line the base of the tin. You can get paper cake tin liners for this size tin from Lakeland, which are ideal.
3 Break the eggs into a mixing bowl and beat them together with a fork. Add the softened butter, sugar, flour and baking powder, then beat the whole lot together with a wooden spoon until blended, then continue beating for 1 minute. Do this in a mixer if you have one, but a bowl and spoon is much better aerobic exercise!
4 Beat the fruit and its beer into the mixture, then pile it into the prepared tin. Make a dip down the centre of the mixture, then bake immediately in the preheated oven for 1½ hours, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean of mixture.
5 Allow the cake to cool slightly in the tin, then turn it out and cool completely on a wire rack. Make skewer holes all over the top of the cake, right through, then gradually pour in the remaining beer.
6 Heat the marmalade until it melts, then brush it over the top of the cake, or spread it if you don’t have a pastry brush. Scatter the toasted almonds over the marmalade so that they stick to the cake.
7 Now, this is the difficult part. Wrap the cake in baking parchment and then foil and leave well alone for 2-3 days before eating, to allow the cake to mature. This is hard but worth it!

Tags: baking, beer, fruit cake