SUGARLESS DATE APPLE CAKE

Recipe
300g unsalted butter
340ml apple juice
300g dates - pitted and chopped
1 bramley apple - about 300g - peeled and grated
350g raisins
300g sultanas
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
150g ground almonds
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
finely grated zest of 1 lemon & 1 orange
Heat the oven to 150C / Gas 2. Butter a 20cm round loose bottom tin and line with baking parchment. Melt the butter with the apple juice, and then stir in the fruit. Bring to the boil, and then simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer this to a large mixing bowl and stir in the bicarb, which will fizz madly! Leave the mixture to cool for around 10 minutes.
Beat the flour, almonds, nutmeg, and zest into the fruit and then pour into cake tin.
As there is so much fruit in the cake it will burn easily, so to protect it while cooking, cut out a sheet of baking parchment that will fit over the tin and halfway down the sides. Cut a hole out of the middle of this paper the size of a 50p piece, and then butter the paper to prevent it sticking to the cake! Lay the paper over the cake and secure with string. Wrap a double layer of parchment around the sides of the tin and tie this in place too.
Now bake the cake for 2 and a half to 3 hours, covering the top of the cake with another layer of parchment if it needs it. It will be cooked when a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.