A lovely, soft and fluffy traybake, this is more like a sponge cake in a tray than the usual slice. The fruit gives a lovely moisture to the finished product. Despite using the best marmalade available (from my home-made batch no less!), I was unable to taste the marmalade in it at all. Mary Berry warns against an excess of marmalade, lest it cause the traybake to dip in the centre but thankfully that did not happen in my case.
Ingredients:
- 175g softened butter
- 175g caster sugar
- 175g sultanas
- 175g currants (I used 200g sultanas total, instead of the 350g sultanas and currents recommended and that was plenty)
- 3 large eggs, beaten
- 250g self-raising flour
- 1 1/2 level tsp baking powder
- 50g natural or glace cherries, quartered
- 2 tbs good quality marmalade
- 2 tbs milk
- nibbed sugar to decorate (I simply sprinkled a fine layer of white sugar over the time and it formed a lovely crust)
Preheat your oven to 180° and grease a 30 x 23cm baking or roasting pan (with 2.5cm high sides, minimum). Line the base with baking paper and set aside.
Pour into the lined tin and bake for 40-45minutes until risen, firm to the touch and golden brown. Check at the 30 minute mark and return to the oven if need be.
Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Peel off the parchment and gently cut into 24 pieces on a chopping board. Use a good sharp knife to ensure the pieces remain intact as far as possible.
In a large bowl, place the eggs and whisk on high with your beaters for about a minute, until they aerate somewhat. Measure in all the remaining ingredients, except the nibbed sugar and beat again until thoroughly blended.
A Tale of Two Kitchens 
Just to say that I’ve now made this recipe 6 times and that it’s been very popular with family and friends. Thank you for this.
I couldn’t edit the above to add that I used the full amount of sultanas and currants with golden glace cherries: it baked well and remained fluffy/light.
I used a very intensely flavoured marmalade and the taste didn’t bake out: this might be because I used scissors to chop the thick marmalade very finely (it had a high amount of peel with relatively little jelly/sugar).
I used Demarara sugar rather than nibbed sugar on half of them, sprinkling it on after 10-12mins in the oven.
Would have been good to have a method for this cake ie cream butter and sugar?? What is the last paragraph all about – I make a lot of cake but this does not make sense – sorry Mary
Easy to make but the recipe is presented in the wrong order – it needs revising .
Thanks! I’ll talk to Alex about revising the recipe.
Recipe looks good but still incorrect. Last paragraph needs to be moved to become the second one.
Love it! My friend made this for me; I asked for the recipe and it inspired me to bake.