Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sweet sherry or port
• 1 cup currants
• 1 cup finely sliced New Zealand apricots
• 250 grams butter
• ¾ cup caster sugar
• ¾ cup maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 2 apples, peeled and sliced

Maple Syrup Sauce

• 125 grams butter
• ½ cup maple syrup
• ¾ -1 cup cream
• 2 egg yolks

Method

1. Pour the sherry or port over the currants and apricots and microwave on high power for 3 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
2. Beat the softened butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Gradually beat in the maple syrup and then the eggs.
3. Sift together the flour, baking soda and spice and fold into the creamed mixture with the apples and the soaked fruit and their juices. Turn into a well-greased and paper-lined 23cm square cake tin.Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 1 ¼ hours or until the cake is cooked, when tested. Cool in the tin for 30 minutes before turning out onto a cake rack to cool. Serve dusted with icing sugar and accompanied with a little Maple Syrup Sauce.

Maple Syrup Sauce

1. Put the butter and maple syrup into a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the butter has melted. Beat the cream and egg yolks together and pour into the hot syrup. Cook, stirring constantly over a low heat until the sauce has thickened. Do not boil as the egg yolks will scramble. Cool before serving.

Cooks Tips

Other Uses for Maple Syrup - Glazing a ham - Flavouring icecreams and whipped creams - Glazing tarts - Garnishing home made Boston Baked Beans when serving - Pouring on porridge - Sweetening freshly poached or stewed fruit When it comes to a brunch of pancakes or French toast, bacon and syrup, today maple syrup has well and truly replaced our much loved golden syrup. Delicately flavoured and lighter in consistency, good maple syrup is a delicious addition to the pantry cupboard and can be used for far more than just a pour-over syrup for the brunch menu. Beware though of unsavory imitations though, prepared from corn syrup and flavoured with maple syrup. These will be termed “maple flavoured syrup” on the bottles. True maple syrup will bear the Canadian maple leaf as a guarantee that it is genuine; look for this at purchase. Price is always another good indicator of quality. It takes 40 litres of sap or maple water from the sugar or black maple tree to create 1 litre of maple syrup. The trees, which grow in Canada and North East USA are tapped in spring. During summer and autumn, trees accumulate starch; by the time spring thaws the snow-laden land, enzymes attack the starch turning it into sugar, which mixes with water absorbed by the trees through their roots. It is this sap or water that is tapped from the trees and collected. Some trees are large enough to have three taps at a time. The sap is no longer collected in barrels but through a network of tubes with vacuum pumps. The resulting maple sap or water is simmered to 104 degrees Celsius to produce pure maple syrup. While our selection here is very limited maple syrup does come in more than one style. Classification of maple syrup by colour is more a guide for flavour than an indication of the quality level. Extra pale coloured syrups have a delicate taste while the darker, medium-grade syrups have a stronger, caramelized taste.