Grandma Couperthwaite's Christmas cake

Ingredients

• 3/4 lb plain flour
• 1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 1 level teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of mixed spice
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 4 oz of candied peel
• 4 oz of glace cherries
• 4 oz of blanched or ground almonds
• 1 lb of currants
• 1/2 lb of sultanas
• 1/2 lb of raisins (large, stoned)
• Grated rind of 1 lemon
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons of stout (Guinness would be a good stout for this cake)
• 1 tablespoon of rum
• 1/2 lb of butter or margarine
• 1/2 lb of soft brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of black treacle

Instructions

1. Sieve all the dry ingredients together and flour the raisins, then mix it in with the peel, fruit, almonds and lemon rind.
2. Whisk the eggs, stout and rum together.
3. Cream the butter, sugar and treacle until soft, then gradually stir in the eggs and flour (make sure you don't overbeat!).
4. Add the fruit.
5. Line an 8 inch or 9-inch cake tin with double-thickness greaseproof paper and tie a band of brown paper around the outside, well above the tin top.
6. Stand on a double-thickness of brown paper.
7. Bake for 5 hours in a fan oven at 120 degrees Celsius (248 degrees Fahrenheit).

Recipe by

Traditional, passed down by my great-grandmother