Temptation Cake

Temptation Cake from Jenny Radcliffe

For a 7" round cake:
* 225g unsalted butter;
* 225g soft brown sugar
* 4 lightly beaten eggs
* 275g plain flour
* 2 level teaspoons of mixed spice, or a similar quantity of spices of your preference
* 700g assorted dried fruits (conventional mixed dried fruits are lovely, but I like to add some unusual things like dried pineapple or mango as well. If you like nuts in your fruitcake, make some of your 700g of "fruit" nuts instead.)
* 200ml of Temptation

1. Before baking, soak your dried fruits (but not, if you're using them, nuts) in Temptation for 24 hours.
2. Preheat an oven to a moderate temperature (GM3, 325F or 175C)
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
4. Beat the eggs in a little at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour with each addition to reduce curdling.
5. Gently fold in the sifted flour and spices.
6. Add fruits/nuts and mix.
7. Gradually add the Temptation the fruits have been soaked in and mix to a soft dropping consistency - not all of the 200ml of Temptation may be required.
7. Bake in a prepared tin for one hour.
8. Reduce the oven temperature (to GM2, 300F or 150C) and bake for a further two hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
9. Once the cake has cooled, remove it from the tin, turn it over, prick the base with the skewer, and feed with more Temptation.
10. Keep for at least a week before eating, and preferably some months. If keeping for some months, you should "feed" the cake either with a spirit of your choice or more Temptation every couple of weeks, by pricking either the top or the base with a skewer and pouring the "food" into the cake.
11. Ice as prefered and eat with enthusiasm.

This cake is, in my experience, popular with venerable grannies, hungry students, precocious three-year-olds, and quite a lot of other people too.