Bun loaf

‘They’d make a bun loaf,’ says Didi, ‘a cake, and it’d it last for ages. They’d cut smallish slices and it wouldn’t occur to anyone to cut a larger one. With a bun loaf you are expecting the end result to look like a fruit cake. The texture is slightly lighter, and moist too, though’

Method

Mix flour and dripping, to breadcrumb.

Add rest of dry ingredients. Adding bicarb and egg last.

Bake in a 8 inch tin in a slow oven for 2 and a ½ hours.

Ingredients

1 lb flour (plain)

¼ lb dripping or lard

6oz butter

½oz mixed spice

1 lb stoned raisins (‘Now I don’t know where you’d find stoned raisins,’ says Didi. ‘They were hard to buy 30 years ago. Try a whole food’)

1 teaspoon bicarb softened in a bit of milk

1 egg

½ pint milk