Woke up feeling a bit crook with swollen glands, so after a morning spent mostly lolling around I decided I needed to do something non strenuous. As Ade had gone surfing again (working in the centre of Hull he doesn’t get much chance, so has to strike whilst the waves are er, wavy) I decided that it would be a good time to make a start on his birthday cake.
I decided to use a tried and tested Nigel Slater recipe from his “Kitchen Diaries” as it doesn’t require endless steeping of fruits and results in a cake that yields 10 or 12 slices only. I would rather a cake was eaten on the day than sat around gathering dust, only to be thrown to the birds sometime in mid April. Quite enjoyed the first bit, mostly because the mixer did most of the work whilst I chopped fruit. Twenty minutes into chopping dates, apricots and figs I was totally fed up so I guess I will find that some sections of cake are chunkier than others. Slung in a few bits of crystallised ginger, which had to go in a very fast as I find it has a tendency to jump into my mouth if left lying around too long. It’s not in the original recipe and I know that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s my cake (well, Ades) so I’ll do as I please.
I have remembered why, in the past, I have always thought “That’s it. That’s the last bloody fruit cake I make. I’m off to M&S like any other sane person in the future”. Baking a fruit cake is a total rat race and however organised you are before hand it always results in a kitchen littered with blobs of beige goo and a light dusting of flour over everything – including me. And I never remember to use a big enough bowl. My mum used to mix hers in an empty washing up bowl (clean and kept specifically for that purpose), which I thought was unnecessarily dramatic when I was a sulky teenager but can now see that it’s a great idea.
It has now got two and a half hours in the oven and I need to tackle the kitchen. Does licking the bowl count as tidying up…?
