Cider Soaked Fruit Cake

I love fruit cake. It is undemanding to make, impressive to serve and delightfully gratifying to eat. Here I've pre-soaked the fruit in still cider overnight, which bestows upon the finished cake a magnificently fruity flavour, not to mention a rich, moist texture. Words really cannot do justice to how majestic this creation is, so I shall (temporarily) suspend any further exercises in hyperbole and delay you no longer.

Prep time: 20 Mins (Plus at least 4hrs soaking time)
Baking time: 75-80 Mins
350g Mixed Dried Fruit
Zest of a Large Orange
200ml Still Cider
200g Unsalted Butter
200g Light Muscovado Sugar
3 Large Eggs
1tsp Cinnamon
1/2tsp Nutmeg
1tsp Baking Powder
200g Plain Flour
2 Medium Dessert Apples (Peeled and cored)
1tbsp Demerara Sugar

To the kitchen! First up is the fruit, that requires a thorough soaking. Place the dried fruit in a shallow dish or container with the orange zest and pour over the cider, ensuring the fruit is completely covered with the liquid. Cover and leave to soak for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, by which time the dried fruit will have become plump and juicy.

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3, grease a deep 20cm loose bottomed tin and line the base with baking paper. In a large bowl cream together the butter and muscovado sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg, then sift in the baking powder with the flour and mix together. Tip in the fruit along with the soaking liquid, mix vigorously until evenly combined, then pour into your prepared tin. Slice the apples thinly, then toss together with the demerara sugar and arrange the slices on top. I'll let you decide on the pattern, but try to cover the top as entirely as you can.  Place the cake in the centre of the oven and bake for 75-80 minutes, until a metal skewer can be cleanly removed when inserted into the middle of the cake. When you're happy it is cooked remove from the oven, leave in the tin for about 20 minutes, then carefully remove and leave to cool completely on a wire rack. That's the cake all finished, so cut yourself an enormous slice as a reward.