A right royal fruit cake fit for a pacific princess

I'm certainly definitely not a chef, I'm not even that fussed about cooking, and I'm not overly impressed by cooking prowess in others to be perfectly honest. It's about the company not the cooked goods that make a great occasion in my opinion.... I do enjoy the idea of sharing a meal with friends but I am slow to discover the joys of the preparation and such. And in confessing all this I must make clear that I am not judgemental of what gets dished up either.... ...but does that make me the perfect guest or a perfect pain in the ass? I do really like Fruit Cake - and I especially like that I am very much in the minority when it comes to desiring this style of cake and therefore when I treat myself it is my treat wholeheartedly and rarely am I forced to share. So this out of character post is in honour of my culinary exception - for those of you who share my Fruit Cake leanings. Have a crack at this, it's so simple its ridiculous. Take about a kilo of dried fruit, mix in a tin of crushed pinapple juice and all...I've also used pineapple pieces which worked fine tho too....- then soak it overnight in 2 cups of OJ. You could go the store bought sweeter style OJ but I tried to be all virtuous and use the oranges dropping off our tree which are nice but pretty tart so cake had a bit of a 'marmalady' flavour overall.....

Next day....heave all this juicey sodden fruit concoction into two cups of self raising flour (now I have also used rice flour with a couple of generous tea spoons of baking powder too....i have no idea why or what i thought i was doing but it worked fine - so go with whatever strikes your fancy or is in your cupboard...). Throw in a greased lined cake tin or loaf tin and bake at 180degrees for about 1 hr....or 45 min....or if your oven is like mine, start hovering around the 40min mark and check every 7 min thereafter until a skewer runs clean when you do the prod test.

My photography doesn't do this puppy justice....it's worth a go and for basically 4 ingredients it is a pretty slick safety net should you have a surprise visitor stop in for tea and cake (they'll either love you for it or never make the mistake of arriving unannounced and empty handed again!). xR