Cake and Seeds

Marmalade and Fruit Cake Recipe

Uses up left over dried fruit and last years marmalade

225g whole wheat flour
150g soft brown sugar
150g soft butter
325g mixture of any dried fruit, make up any combination to make the weight
50g of any nuts chopped, I have used almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts
grated zest of a lemon
400gof chunky marmalade
3 teaspoons of baking powder
3 medium eggs

I put I a 7inch square cake tin, greased and base lined. I am sure a round tin of similar size would be fine.
Oven, 170C

Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat everything with an electric whisk. Place the mixture into the greased tin and bake for about an hour and a half. A skewer inserted should come out clean when the cake is ready. It takes longer to cook in my Rayburn, more like 2 hours. If top becomes brown before cake is done, cover top with greaseproof paper.  Cool in tin for half an hour before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.

This week I sent off  a parcel to my seedy Penpal  and received mine from Carl. I had been warned to expect the contents to be all shapes and sizes and what a fantastic assortment arrived! A thyme plant, a just perfect addition to the herb garden and for our bees.The foliage was very fragrant asI unpacked the plant. Tubers of  Oca and Mashua, which I am very keen to try and loads of seeds for interesting edibles, all packed up with a beautiful Llyn sunset card! I am intrigued by Par Cel, a leaf celery that I have not come across before. So, I have a whole lot of new varieties which I can try out in my new garden and shall write of my progress periodically.