Valita's Christmas Cake

A few years ago when I started blog surfing and this lady http://valitasfreshfolds.blogspot.com/ was one of the first blogs I enjoyed.
She is a Christian Australian lady who makes fantastic cards and also this amazing recipe that I will share.

Valita's Christmas Cake
1/2 Kilo of mixed dried Fruit
1 c brown sugar100g bag of glazed cherries
6 dried dates chopped
6 dried apricots chopped
3/4 c mxied chopped nuts
125g butter
1/2 440g can pineapple chopped small
1, 1/4 c pineapple juice - use the juice from the can of pineapple
and add enough water to make it up
Bring all this to the boil and boil for 3-4 mins. add 1 tsp of baking powder stir and then let cool.when mixture is cool add2 eggs
1/2 chopped banana
1/2 c choc chips
4 tsp Rum essence
2 tsp of vanilla essence
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 c self raising flour
Mix all this together and pour into a lined cake tin. top with extra cherries and or almonds.
Bake in a Mod oven for about 1 hour or until when tested with a skewer it comes out clean. ENJOY

She is one creative lady!

This year I'm going to tweak this and see if it's still good with gluten free flour and dairy free spread. I think it will. I  suspect boiled fruit cakes are an Australian thing and definitely the pineapple and apricot and banana are the things that make it for me.