Sweet Potato Fruit Cake

It’s spicy and very moist, and it also works well as a Christmas cake, with the advantage that you don’t need to make it weeks (months?) in advance. It happens to be dairy free. If you’re making your own fruit mix, use 300g each of raisins, sultanas and currants, 100g of orange peel. It makes a large cake – you may prefer to make half the recipe. Yield: 10-inch cake

1 med/large or 2 small mashed, cooked sweet potato 1,000g (1kg) mixed fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants & orange peel – see above) 5 fruit tea bags (any kind of tea except mint) 250g sifted plain flour 100g whole meal flour 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda ¾ tsp baking powder ¾ tsp salt 1 tsp ground cinnamon ½ tsp ground cloves ½ tsp ground nutmeg 50g ground almonds 8oz (225 ml) cooking oil 225g caster sugar 2 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla 200g chopped walnuts 50g plain flour

Cook the sweet potato whole in its skin, just covered in water, until tender. Cool, peel and mash. Boil a kettle of water. Pour it over the mixed fruit in a large bowl, add the tea bags and let soak for 30-60 minutes. Remove the tea bags, drain well, and spread the fruit on a large clean (old) towel, or several layers of paper towel, and let dry for at least an hour.

Prepare pan: I usually butter the pan generously so that the paper sticks to it. Cut 2 rounds of brown paper + 1 round of parchment for bottom, line sides with parchment, and tie a double layer strip of brown paper around the outside. Combine all of the dry ingredients, incl. ground almonds, and mix together with a fork. Combine oil, sugar and eggs in a mixing bowl and beat for about 2 min. Add the mashed sweet potato and vanilla and combine. Add the dry ingredients and beat or stir until smooth; add a little milk if it seems very thick. In a very large bowl, combine the mixed fruit with the walnuts, then sprinkle with the remaining flour and mix well – I think hands work best for this. Pour the batter over the fruit and mix (large spoon is good, hand is good too) to combine evenly. Pour into prepared pans and bake in a slow oven (150°, or 140° for convection): 3 – 3½ hours.

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