You will need a large non-stick, loose bottomed cake tin, lined with a circle of non-stick baking paper or Teflon liner. You will also need to preheat the oven to 150C.
In a large saucepan melt 315g butter or sunflower dairy free spread, 340ml cloudy apple juice, 200g dates, pitted and chopped,100g prunes, pitted and chopped until hot and then bubble for about 3-5 minutes on medium high heat. Remove from the heat.
295g peeled, cored and grated cooking apples or windfalls, 350g raisins, 315g sultanas should all be combined in a large mixing bowl. Then sift 150g Doves Farm gluten free flour mix over the fruit. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda and then 150g ground almonds and gently mix together. Finally, season with plenty of freshly grated nutmeg and mixed spice powder. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and give it all a gentle and final mix.
Gently scrape the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven until the cake is dark brown but not burnt at the edges! This will probably be a couple of hours but insert a skewer into the centre of the cake to check that it is cooked all the way through. All ovens are slightly different and so are the cake tins but 2 1/2 hrs should be enough for most scenarios. Let the cake cool in the tin, wrap it in baking parchment when the cake is cold and wrap this yummy bundle carefully in foil. Keep in a cool place until ready to ice.
