Porter cake by Good Food Magazine

Porter cake

Ingredients
175g/6oz butter
450g/1lb mixed dried fruit
1 orange, grated zest and juice
175g/6oz light muscovado sugar
200ml/7fl oz porter, stout or Caffrey's
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 eggs, beaten
300g/10oz plain flour
2 tsp mixed spice

For the topping:
2 tbsp flaked almonds
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2. Grease and line the base of a 20cm/8in round deep cake tin. Put the butter, dried fruit, orange zest and juice, sugar and porter in a large pan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the butter has dissolved, then simmer for 15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then stir in the bicarbonate of soda. The mixture will foam up, but don't worry this is just the bicarbonate doing its work.
2. Stir the eggs into the pan, then sift in the flour and spice and mix well. Pour into the prepared tin, smooth the top with the back of a spoon and sprinkle with flaked almonds and demerara sugar. Bake for 1¼-1½ hours until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
3. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out, remove the paper and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. Ideally, return to the tin for a couple of days.