A rather famous make of Country Slice cakes have been enormously popular since they were first introduced in the 1970’s. As a child I remember how much of a treat they were as they were one of the more expensive varieties so I wasn’t too surprised to see them recently in the supermarket priced at £1.49 for six very small slices.
So, I decided to set about developing my own version of this delicious lightly spiced fruit cake as I was sure it could be made for much less…and I was right!
Even using the best ingredients bought at full price and not when on special offer (something that doesn’t happen often here at The Thrifty squirrels! We always stock up when there are offers to be had!) I have made this cake for around the same price as a small box of the mass produced ones…but I know exactly what’s gone into it and better still I’ve got at least twice as much cake! 12 large slices instead of 6 small ones. As a careful shopper you could make this cake for under £1.00!
This is a lovely lightly spiced fruit cake, simple and quick to make but it has something a little extra that sets it apart from any other fruit cake. When the cake has cooked it is drizzled with a spicy syrup for extra flavour – perfect!
Ingredients
For The Cake:
115 g (4 oz) butter
115 g (4 oz) light soft brown sugar (this adds a bit more flavour but makes the cake a little darker in colour, you could use ordinary caster sugar instead)
2 eggs, beaten
140 g (5 oz) self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon milk
85 g (3 oz) mixed dried fruit (sultanas & currants)
1 tablespoon demerara sugar
For the spicy syrup:
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons water
a pinch of mixed spice and a pinch of cinnamon – 1/4 teaspoon in total
To Make The Cake
Grease and base line an 18 cm (7″) cake tin and preheat the oven to gas 4 (180c /350f)
Make the cake by creaming together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs, beating well between each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour half way through to help prevent the mixture curdling.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, mixed spice and cinnamon then gradually fold into the creamed butter and sugar followed by the milk and dried fruits.
Carefully spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top. Sprinkle over the demerara sugar to give a crunchy topping.
Bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Make the spicy syrup by placing the caster sugar, water and spices into a small saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and simmer for about 1 minute until it is slightly thickened and syrupy.
Turn the cake out onto a cooling rack upside down so that the base of the cake is facing upwards.
Using a teaspoon, carefully spoon over the spicy syrup, covering all of the base of the cake as evenly as possible.
Leave to cool then cut the cake into 12 slices.
You can make this cake even more quickly using the all-in-one method. Use soft tub margarine and put all of the ingredients except the dried fruits, in a large bowl. Omit the milk as the tub margarine is much moister and so the milk is not necessary. Mix (with an electric whisk or stand mixer for speed) until well combined. Stir through the dried fruits and proceed as above. Using a soft tub margarine will give you a slightly more fragile cake.
Hi made this cake I have fan oven baked it 160 after 3o mins not cooked sank in middle
Hi Linda – thanks for getting in touch and sorry to hear that you have had a problem with baking the Country Slice Cake.
There are a few possibilities as to why your cake sank in the middle – the most common ones are:
1. too much raising agent – we add an extra teaspoon to give an extra light cake but you could leave this out if you are using the creaming method described as opposed to the all-in-one method mentioned at the bottom of the recipe. It is usually a good idea to add extra baking powder when making cakes by the all-in-one method as not a great deal of air is incorporated into the mixture so the baking powder gives the necessary ‘lift’.
2. opening the oven door before the cake was cooked – I too have a fan oven and have noticed (more so than with the gas oven I used to have) that if I take a quick peek before the majority of the baking time is up then it is possible that the cool air that enters the oven is enough to lower the temperature quite dramatically and spoil your bake – especially true of Yorkshire Puddings I have found out!!
3. Over-working the cake batter – all of the air should be incorporated into the batter at the creaming stage, after that you need to work very gently, just lightly folding in the flour and spices – no beating after they have been added! Too much beating after the flour is added can incorporate too much extra air, this expands rapidly in the heat of the oven, which the batter cannot support.
4. even in a fan oven pre-heating is important and best results still seem to be achieved by baking in the centre of the oven. Also it’s a good idea to check that you oven is heating to the correct temperature – even brand new ovens can be a little off!
5. every oven is different so baking times are only a guide – the most likely reason for your cake sinking (and you mention that it wasn’t cooked through) is that it wasn’t in the oven for long enough. When the suggested baking time is nearly up, test the cake by pressing it lightly near the centre. If it bounces back leaving no trace of a dent then it is cooked – double check by inserting a skewer (or point of a sharp knife) into the cake, if it comes out clean then it is definitely cooked. If there is any batter on the skewer then continue to cook for a few minutes more.
6. use the correct size tin – changing the size of a tin slightly shouldn’t cause too many problems but if the batter is deeper then it will need a longer cooking time or if shallower it will need less cooking time.
I hope these pointers may shed some light on why your cake may have failed this time. I do hope you will give it another go – it really is extremely delicious!
Please do pop back and let me know how it goes ?
I made this today. I didn’t do the syrup and added 20g of semolina. Absolutely gorgeous.
Hi Pat, the syrup adds a nice spicy kick to the cake but without it, it becomes a lovely subtly spiced cake – a nice change! Would be interested to know how the semolina changed the outcome of the recipe…
Made this twice now, second time I doubled the amount of ingredients and made a tray bake out of it. Has some family round for dinner and the whole lot disappeared in one night!
Hi Ian, what a great idea to double the recipe and make a traybake – perfect for feeding a crowd 🙂 This is one of our most popular recipes so I’m very pleased to hear that everyone enjoyed it.
I an thinking of trying your delicious looking recipe. May I ask if I can bake this in a swiss roll tray rather than a tin? Will I need to change the cooking time if so? Thank you 🙂
Hi Den, sorry for the delay in responding to your question but we have just moved house and things are a little hectic at the moment! This recipe should work well in a shallower tin but the cooking time will need to be reduced if the cake is going to be thinner. It really all depends on the size of the tin you are going to use but I would start checking for doneness after about 12 minutes – if it’s not done then you can keep a careful eye on it from there 🙂 I do hope this helps and please do let me know how it goes 🙂
My husband loves this shop bought cake, but I love baking so thought I would try and find the recipe for him. Thought I would give this one a go and it’s perfect. Used golden cater sugar and only had an 8″ tin, but other than that followed it exactly. Thanks for the recipe, it’s really lovely and will certainly be baking it again. Suspect it might become one of the favourites.
So pleased to here that you have enjoyed this recipe. It’s one of our favourites too!
I’ve made this cake three times, with self-raising flour as listed and with plain flour+baking powder. It tastes great, but each time sinks in the middle. What am I doing wrong?
It sounds as though you may need to bake the cake just a little longer. The main reason for cakes sinking are usually under baking, opening the oven door before the cake is cooked or adding too much raising agent. Measure the baking powder carefully, check the temperature of your oven and try baking it a for another 5 mins or so to make sure it is cooked through before taking it out of the oven.
I hope this helps but if you still have problems let me know and we can put our heads together and find the solution 🙂