Productive day

We've been working on preserves, cooked items and sourdough on this wet weekend.

I've re-worked an old favourite boiled fruit cake to produce a yellowy orange healthy morning tea and it is so easy.

In a saucepan mix up:

375g of dried fruit
4 tablespoons of butter
1/2-1 cup brown/muscovado sugar (to taste)
1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
1 cup water

Bring all to the boil and mix well as it boils for two minutes. I made this last night, let it cool and then added a slug of sherry.

Today I added two beaten eggs, 1/2 cup chopped almonds, 1/2 cup plain flour and 1.5 cups of self raising flour plus a pinch of mixed spice.

Bake the cake at 350F/180C for 40 minutes.

I also made a batch of strawberry jam, refreshed the sourdough, brandied some Queen peaches for a long soak and made a batch of chocolate-chip cookies.