Apricot, Cherry and Raisin loaf cake.

The past week has been a hard one for me. My Grandma passed away. It was very sudden and a massive shock and I don't know how long it will take me to come to terms with the fact I couldn't see her one last time before she passed, but I know I'll feel better soon if I carry on as normal and remember the good memories I shared with her.

As she herself was a great lover of baking and all things foodie, I felt it was right to honour her with a blog post, making something and celebrating the knowledge and skills she passed onto my Mum who then passed them on to me. If myself and my Grandma truly had anything in common it was our love of sweet treats and a good slice of cake.

One thing I will always remember my Grandma really enjoyed when it came to an afternoon cup of tea and a nibble, it was fruit cake. When I asked my Mum if she had any old recipes of Grandma's lying around for a fruit cake, the only one she could find was the Christmas cake recipe. Massive shock for me! The Christmas cake recipe I had always thought was my Mum's was actually originally my Grandma's! I can still remember spending every year as a kid in the kitchen, weighing out all the ingredients, cutting up glacé cherries and eventually licking the bowl clean (something kids today are told not to do! I'm still alive and kicking so damn it being harmful and let them have fun!), and now I know it was all to the tune of my Grandma's ol' faithful recipe.

But Christmas has passed now, and ol' faithful isn't much good again for another 11 months, so I got my thinking cap on. If that's the only fruit cake recipe my Mum could find of my Grandma's, it would be the recipe I would use in this post, but I would take the basics of it and adapt it into something special, something of my own and something I hope my Grandma would love.

Fruit cake a-go-go!

INGREDIENTS

125g margarine
125g caster sugar
125g plain flour
1 level tsp cinnamon
1 level tsp mixed spice
Zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
100g raisins
40g ground almond
50g dried apricot
90g glacé cherries, quartered

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan) and line a loaf tin with baking parchment.

Weigh out the raisins, almond, apricot and cherries into a bowl. Mix and set aside.

Cream together the sugar and margarine then add the lemon zest. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each one in until fully combined. Add the cinnamon and mixed spice to the flour and add to the wet mixture. Lastly, pour in all the fruit, mix well and transfer to the loaf tin.

Place in the oven on the middle shelf for 45 minutes until a dark golden brown on top and a skewer comes out clean. It's very easy at this last stage to poke through a piece of fruit and get a clean skewer before the cake is actually cooked through, so poke it several times in different spots to be completely sure it's done.

Once cooked, remove from the tin and place on a cooling rack.

Having never cooked this cake before (or even a fruit cake!), I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. I've been experimenting a lot more lately with creating my own recipes and being more risky with adaptations of my Mum's, and this one worked a real treat. The addition of dried apricots to the mixture adds a new level of sweetness and the flavour combination of all the fruits is something I didn't imagine working so amazingly well. No flavour is too overwhelming, yet they're all there and pack their punch.

The cake is further tied together by the kick of the cinnamon and mixed spice, leaving a slight tang in the mouth long after your plate is empty. It's always nice to remember you've just eaten a good piece of cake and I love the lingering taste of spice in this sponge.

Speaking of the sponge: it's moist and tastes great. In my Mum's original recipe, the almonds aren't fully ground, but I used fully ground so they would be completely incorporated in the sponge and I like the nutty hint they've left. Rather than a proper crunch of nut in your teeth, they're subtle and give the cake a little something different than a standard sponge.

Overall, the cake was a massive success. I'm so glad I could take such a loved cake of my Grandma's and honour it with an adaptation that will go down in my own recipe book alongside her original recipe. I never want to forget where my love of baking comes from and I hope my Grandma would love it just as much as I do and that she'd smile to know her baking legacy will live on.

Who in your family inspires you to bake?