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
 * 1/4 pint Water
 * 8 oz Self-raising flour
 * 1/2 Teaspoon Ground ginger
 * Large pinch Ground cloves
 * 1/2 Teaspoon finely ground Black Pepper
 * 4 Tablespoon Milk
 * 1 Egg, beaten

Directions

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