A BELATED HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

I've been away for a while, so I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and managed a nice rest before starting the new year. Thanks for all your messages: I'm glad those of you who tried the Chocolate Mincemeat Cake enjoyed it (and no one seems to have tried before I'd corrected the "Micemeat" misprint!) For those of you who missed the recipe the first time around, here's a little something to keep you busy until my next post...

Care: this isn't gluten free, and you really need the dots to be white chocolate - I didn’t have any when I first tried this recipe out, and the ordinary milk-chocolate dots I used were virtually invisible in the finished cake.

CHOCOLATE MINCEMEAT CHRISTMAS CAKE

150g softened butter 

150g soft brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

185g  self-raising flour

40g cocoa powder

400g mincemeat (I used my own recipe of mixed dried fruits, plus grated apples and brandy)

80g each of sultanas and raisins

20g quartered glace cherries, washed & well dried.

50g blanched almonds, chopped

100g of white chocolate dots

METHOD: 

Pre heat oven to Gas Mark 3/Electric 160 deg. C, Fan 140 deg C.

Line a 20cm/8” tin with a couple of layers of greaseproof paper.

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and beat for 1- 2 minutes, until well mixed.

Spoon into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for between 90 minutes - 2 hours, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.  You’ll probably need to cover the cake with tinfoil toward the end of the cooking time, to stop it browning too quickly.

Leave the cake to cool in its tin for a while before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This cake doesn't freeze and is unlikely to keep for as long as a traditional rich fruit cake, but this doesn’t matter as it vanishes in a very short time!