So, even though the apricot slices have not been finished. I still wanted to move on to the next baking adventure (yes lockdown is taking it’s toll now…). The top shelf still has half full bags of prunes, dates and dried apricots. There are also few towers of tinned fruit adorning shelf in the living room, they all need using up. So I googled apricot prune and pineapple cake and this recipe came up. It seemed so simple and so I made this cake / loaf this evening.

Notes:

I only had 225g worth of tinned pinapple. I did not have sherry, so I used the 6 year old bottle of rum that has been taking up space on the living room floor ( :- 0 )! I found that mixing dried apricot, prunes and tinned pineapple with bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice did not create a mixture that ‘boiled’ in any sense of the word. So I sneakly added some pineapple juice. I loved the fact that I did not have to add sugar – there is quite frankly enough sugar in all the fruit. I loved the fact that I did not have to chop up sticky apricots and prunes – that was a win for me.

I ate a slice shortly after it came out of the oven. Delicious – went well with a cup of Roiboos tea.

Ingredients

450 g (14 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained

200 g (6½ oz) dried apricots

250 g (8 oz) pitted prunes

2 teaspoons mixed spice

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup (60 ml/2 fl oz) sweet sherry

2 cups (250 g/8 oz) self-raising flour

Method

1. Combine the pineapple, apricots, prunes, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda in a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 2 minutes, remove and leave to cool for 1 hour.

2. Preheat the oven to warm 170°C (325°F/Gas 3). Line a 24 × 12 cm (9½ × 5 inch) loaf tin with a sheet of non-stick baking paper.

3. Add the eggs, sherry and sifted flour to the fruit and mix well. Spoon into the tin and bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before turning out. Cool completely before serving.