Simplest Cake in the World!

I was so excited when I saw this recipe in the database, especially since we have a holiday coming up in which we eat a lot of dried fruit and dried fruit-based dishes. I had a few questions about how the fruit should be prepared (cut up, left whole), and precisely what the chef meant by orange juice concentrate, since I know that this can mean different things in different parts of the world. I never really got any answers from the chef and attempted to make this based on what I could figure out on my own. I cut up the fruit and mixed it with the rest of the ingredients, not changing a thing. During the first 20 minutes at 200 degrees C the top already was starting to brown. This is probably due to the high sugar content of the fruit and the orange juice concentrate. I covered the cake with a sheet of silver foil and continued to follow directions, lowering the heat to 175 C after 20 minutes and then 20 minutes after that lowering it to 140. It didn't take long till I could smell the cake starting to burn. I took the cake out after only an hour and a half instead of leaving it in there for the 2 - 2 1/2 hours called for in the recipe. I'm sure that if I had just left it in there on the timer I would have had either a fire in my oven or a black, charred mess. I was very sorry to have to throw out the cake, I wish there was some way I could have salvaged it. Dried fruit, especially a whole kilo of it, can be very expensive. I wish that Missy had at least answered my questions before I tried to make this cake, maybe it would have come out better. I will not be trying this one again.

I don't know what went wrong with Mirj's version as I have gotten an excellent result every time I have made this. I do make the alcoholic variation, and the fruit is chopped fairly fine. I tend to use the commercial packets of mixed fruit with maybe a few extra bits of my own thrown in.