Have all your ingredients at room temp. Preheat the oven to 300 F, and grease and line 2 – 9 x 5 loaf pans (lined with parchment paper).
Sift together:(does anyone sift?)
3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp mace
½ tsp cloves
Cream 1 c of butter, with 2 c of brown sugar until the colour of mixture is a light brown. Add, mixing in between 6 eggs.
Beat in ½ c molasses, juice and zest from both a lemon and an orange.
½ c of brandy….I use apricot brandy. Add the flour and spices to this egg mixture.
Add
2 ½ of fruit: citron, pineapple, cherries orange/lemon peel
2 c coarsely chopped walnuts
1 ½ c chopped dates
1 ½ c dried currents
1 ½ c golden raisins.
Mix well with your wooden spoon.
Put in your prepared pans and bake for 1 ½ hrs until a toothpick comes out clean. Be watchful of overfilling the pans. Leave a good 3/4 inch space. Oh, I also add cherries and almonds to the top of the cake before baking, just because my Nana always did too.
If the cake looks too dark from heat, you might tent it with aluminium foil for the last 45 minutes or so.
Let the pan cool for 1 hr before you try removing the cake…then invert to remove from pan and remove the parchment paper. Wrap the cooled cake until you want it. Some people also soak the cake with rum, but I found it got too gummy and sticky…not a fan so I don’t do this any more.