DUNDEE CAKE

Viv Edward's mother, Het (Mrs Tom) of Ferndale in the Rhondda, South Wales, is an extremely organized cook with a repertoire of fantastic recipes. She has done all Viv and Chris' baking for years and their life is not complete without at least one Dundee Cake tucked in the freezer for security. I have seen Dundees made with butter and Dundees made with whole wheat flour, depending on what their food fixation of the moment is, but this is the recipe she gave to me in 1974, when Tom and I spent Christmas with them and I ate so much I got the only migraine of my life.

 DUNDEE CAKE

8 ounces sugar
8 ounces margarine
8 ounces flour
4 eggs
8 ounces sultana raisins
8 ounces currants
8 ounces candied cherries
2 ounces ground blanched almonds
2 ounces (about), blanched, split almonds

Mix currants and raisins. Halve cherries. Cover them with boiling water, stir and drain. Pat dry. Shake ground almonds over the cherries and then mix together with other fruit.

Cream sugar and margarine until pale. Add eggs one at a time and beat well between each addition. Add fruit. Fold in sifted flour. Grease a deep, round cake tin and line it with waxed paper. Fill tin with batter and cover top entirely with split almonds. Bake for 3 hours at 300E, until golden. Cool for 10 minutes in tin before turning out on a rack to cool.

There is no leavening of any kind in this recipe. It can be doubled and tripled without problems. The best tin for it is a 9 inch springform pan, because it is deeper than normal cake pans. I have made six cakes from a quadruple batch, but this is the limit because I could not fit any more batter into my very largest mixing bowl.

This information was placed on the web by Thomas J. Sienkewicz. If you have any questions about this document, you may contact him at tom@tomsiekewicz.com.