Categories: Cakes, Christmas, Ceideburg 2 
      Yield: 1 servings 
  
    450 g  Sultanas 
    450 g  Seedless raisins 
    230 g  Currants 
    230 g  Mixed peel 
    230 g  Glace pineapple 
    230 g  Glace apricots 
      4 tb Brandy 
      4 tb Sherry 
    230 g  Prunes 
    450 g  Buffer 
    450 g  Brown sugar 
     12 x  61 g eggs [Hunh? S.C.] 
    450 g  Plain flour 
    115 g  Rice flour 
      1 ts Parisian essence [Hunh?, 
           -again... S.C.] 
      2 tb Ultra-strong coffee. 
  
  Everyone knows that there never was Christmas cake as good as the one 
  Mum makes.  Well, here it is.  With surpassing generosity, Raw 
  Materials' Mum gave permission for the family recipe, used down the 
  years, to appear here, its imperial measures at last converted to 
  metric. [Lucky us, eh... ;-} S.C.] 
   
  Clean and prepare all fruit except the prunes.  Pick over vine fruit 
  and remove any stems.  Chop the larger fruit into small pieces (a 
  pair of scissors does the job more easily than a knife).  Mix the 
  fruits in a bowl and add brandy and sherry.  Cover tightly and leave 
  overnight or longer. 
   
  Prepare one deep 23 cm square cake tin (or, for one cake to keep and 
  one to give, one 20 cm square tin and one 15 cm square).  Grease the 
  interior of the tin(s) with butter.  Line with two layers of brown 
  paper cut to fit and to project above the sides of the tin by about 5 
  cm. 
   
  Inside the brown paper, fit a layer of grease proof paper, projecting 
  similarly.  Butter the inside of the grease proof.  Pit and chop the 
  prunes.  Cream the butter and sugar well.  Add the eggs, one at a 
  time, mixing each in thoroughly.  Add prunes. 
   
  Sift flours together and add the butter-sugar mixture alternately 
  with the fruit.  Add the essence and coffee. 
   
  Put the mixture into the prepared tins(s).  Dip one hand in cold 
  water and pat the surface of the cake flat.  (The thin layer of water 
  keeps the surface moist for a long time and lessens the chance of the 
  cake rising in the middle.) Bake in a preheated 150C oven for 1 hour, 
  then reduce the heat to 135C and cook for a further 2 1/4 hours. 
   
  Take the cake from the oven and fold the extra paper layers over the 
  top of the cake, tin and all, while still hot in at least 4 layers of 
  newspaper. Place on a rack and leave overnight.  (This process keeps 
  the cake moist and prevents it cracking on top while it cools.) In 
  the morning, remove from the tin, peel off the paper and store the 
  cakes(s) in an airtight tin. 
   
  From "Raw Materials" by Meryl Constance, Sydney Morning Herald, 
  12/8/92. 
   
  Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; February 18 1993.