I absolutely love this cake. Although technically given it is cake it probably doesn’t need butter, but I don’t think you can go past a nice thick slice with a generous spread of butter across it. You can use any type of fruit and nuts that you like. If you don’t have nut roll cake tins it could be made in a normal shaped cake tin, but somehow I’m not convinced that it would taste quite as delicious.
Ingredients
250 mls boiling water
70 grams butter
200 grams dried apricots, finely chopped
½ teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 cup / 220 grams brown sugar
2 cups (300 grams) self raising flour, plus a little bit more, maybe a few tablespoons
¾ cup chopped nuts
1 egg
Method
1. Grease two nut roll tins and line the bottoms and sides with baking paper. Remove all but the bottom oven tray – the cake tins are pretty tall. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Place the water and butter in a large saucepan and heat until the butter melts.
3. Remove form the heat and stir in the carb soda. Mix well, then add the rest of the ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins. The mix should half fill each tin. Place the tins, standing up, in the oven and bake for about 50 minutes.
5. Remove form the oven and leave to stand for at least 10 minutes, as the cakes are pretty fragile when hot – I’ve been known to break a few when trying to remove them too hastily.
6. Serve with butter.