It's not pretty. No one is ever going to slather it with hairspray to make it look good for the cover of some glossy magazine. It's a fruitcake. 

Wait. 

Come back. 

As my ex-husband's partner said to me yesterday. "I have always hated fruitcake, but I'd eat this any day of the week." 

Dundee Cake has been a holiday tradition in my family since I was a small child. My poor mum had resigned herself to the fact that I would never learn to love to cook (I once set macaroni and cheese on fire), but she discovered that I loved to bake. 

Dundee Cake came into our lives from a little English cookbook that my mum had brought back to the States with her after a visit back home. The cake itself is Scottish, having originated in the 19th century. It was first made commercially by Keiller's, but it was invented in many a Scottish kitchen prior to its commercialization. 

After I had a family of my own, I would pine for my mum's Dundee cake, which she had changed by removing those horrible dyed fruit bits that make most fruitcakes inedible. 

She passed the recipe on to me, and I began making it as a Christmas morning treat. Each Christmas morning, as we open our presents, we drink coffee (or milk) and eat Dundee Cake. At Christmastime, I am asked by friends to bring Dundee cake to various parties, and, as a consequence, I've learned to make the cakes in loaf pans (the eight-inch kind) rather than in the large cake tins that my mum uses. 

I, too, have varied the recipe. I like the cake to have a bit of a lemon bite, so I've added lemon juice to the recipe. 

Lorraine's variation on Dundee Cake

¾ cup butter

¾ cup sugar

4 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 ¼ tsp. baking powder

2 Tbsp. ground almonds

1 ¼ cup currants

1 cup golden raisins

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 lemon

split blanched almonds

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time beating each of them well. Sift (or mix) flour and baking powder together. Beat in half the flour. Add remaining eggs and beat well.  Gradually add remaining flour. Fold in ground almonds, currants, raisins and lemon zest. Squeeze the juice from the zested lemon into the batter. Mix until the fruit is well distributed. Scoop mixture into two buttered-and-floured loaf pans. Top the batter with the blanched almonds. As many as you want. That's it, go for it. (The toasted almonds are delicious)

Bake in 350 degree oven for approximately 50 minutes. (Depends on how deep the batter is in your loaf pan.) The cake is done when a toothpick or cake tester is clean after being inserted into centre of cake.

Cool five minutes before transfer to cake plate.

(I apologize for the baking time being vague--I've had the cakes bake in as little as 40 minutes, or up to 60 minutes. I suggest checking around 45 minutes--the cake will not fall.)