To be honest, if you substitute accident-prone for accidental, that’s a pretty good description of me, but the title refers to a cake I was making for my friend Simon to say thanks for a favour. I meant to follow a recipe for an old-fashioned boiled fruit cake in the sainted Mary Berry’s excellent Ultimate Cake Book but as usual I embarked headlong on the task assuming I had all the ingredients to hand in my smugly well-stocked cupboards.

Needless to say, I didn’t. This is how events unfolded. Continue reading →