I started making this cake whilst living in the UK and I continue to make it here. Only now, I have to make about 6 for family and friends. I have to use a really large specially-purchased washing up bowl because there is so much mixture. Stuart has offered me his cement mixer to use for mixing everything up as it’s hard work on my arms turning and turning the mixture!
It’s a fruit cake so full of dried fruit and nuts that there’s barely any cake batter and it doesn’t have the sweet icing that usually adorns a fruit cake. You can replace the nuts with more dried fruit (I use dried apricots, cranberries and prunes).
The cake takes its name from the Murrumbidgee river in NSW Australia. Stuart calls it my budgie cake!
First of all, line a 2-pound loaf tin with greaseproof paper and set the oven to 150°C.
Next, mix together the fruit and nuts in a large bowl: 7 ounces of whole Brazil nuts, 5 ounces of whole walnut halves, 8 ounces of halved stoned dates, 3 ½ ounces of candied citrus peel, 6 ounces of glacé cherries, 3½ ounces of raisins and the grated zest of a lemon.
Now mix 3½ ounces of plain flour with ½ teaspoon each of baking powder and salt and 5 ounces of caster sugar. Sift these over the fruit and nuts, and make sure everything gets coated.
In a jug, beat 3 large eggs with a teaspoon of vanilla extract, pour into the fruit and flour and mix well until you have a stiff batter.
Pile in the mixture into the tin, pressing down the fruit and nuts and smoothing as well you can.
Bake for two hours, testing the mixture with a skewer to see if it’s baked. If during the bake, the cake looks as though it’s getting too brown, cover with brown paper.
Cool the cake for 10 minutes and turn out onto a clean tea towel and make several holes in the cake with a skewer. Feed it with some alcohol - you can use any spirit or liqueur. Wrap the cake in greaseproof paper or clingfilm then tin foil (or you can wrap it in a tea cloth). Place in the fridge. Depending on how long before Christmas you make it, every couple of days feed with a little more alcohol.
The cake can be eaten on its own, with cream or crème fraiche or if it is warmed, it’s nice with some custard. It freezes well but slice it first and individually wrap the slice(s) so that you can take it out and defrost when required.
