Westmorland Pepper Cake

Prep Time:

Cook time:

Serves:

Description
If you have never tried adding pepper to a sweet dish before now, you will be pleasantly surprised by its effect. It adds unusual spiciness to what is otherwise a fairly standard fruitcake and is just one example of the huge variety of fruit cake recipes that come from this part of the world.

Ingredients

 * 3 oz raisins
 * 3 oz currants
 * 4 oz caster sugar
 * 3 oz butter
 * ¼ pint water
 * 8 oz self-raising flour
 * ½ teaspoon ground ginger
 * large pinch ground cloves
 * ½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
 * 4 tablespoon milk
 * 1 egg, beaten

Directions

 * 1) Pre-heat oven to 180°C / 350°F / gas 4.
 * 2) Grease the base of a deep 18 cm (7 inch) cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.
 * 3) Put the fruit, sugar, butter and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
 * 4) Simmer for 10 minutes, then leave to cool slightly.
 * 5) Put the flour, spices and pepper in a bowl and gently stir in the fruit mixture, milk and the egg.
 * 6) Mix thoroughly without beating.
 * 7) Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden brown.
 * 8) Turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.