Part of my ongoing attempt at de-clutterization has been sifting through stacks of recipes -- some printouts, some torn from magazines, and some hand-written by friends or family. Here's one I copied about forty-five years ago.
It was on our great motorcycle camping trip and we were in a small camp in a beautiful apple orchard somewhere in Devonshire. In the farmhouse kitchen, where we paid our camping fee and purchased some supplies, a fragrant dark loaf was cooling on the table. "Is that for sale?" I asked the farmwife. "No, dear, it's for our tea." She told me she called it caravan cake as she'd gotten the recipe from a camper in a caravan and she was kind enough to give me the recipe.
I know I made it several times after we returned home but at some point the recipe went astray. So I was delighted to see it again -- and put mixed dried fruit and self-rising flour on my grocery list. Yesterday was bleak and rainy -- the perfect day to do a little baking.
CARAVAN CAKE 1 lb. mixed dried fruit (cut up now or later) 1/2 lb. butter 1/2 lb. brown sugar 1 cup cold water Put into a pan. Bring to a boil and cook for twenty minutes. Cool. (The fruit was still in rather large pieces so I took the kitchen scissors to it.)
Now add 12 0z. (which I estimated to be a cup and a half, not having kitchen scales) self rising flour and three beaten eggs.
Put into large greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for an hour and fifteen minutes. Enjoy.
