It’s time to celebrate whatever you fancy with a lovely slice of cake

An urgent need for cake. An old-fashioned one, studded with dried fruit, or perhaps a slice of something more frivolous, with a citrus filling and iced top and sides. A birthday-style cake looking for a birthday.

Rarely does an afternoon go by without a piece of something sweet on a plate eaten with a cup of tea. This week, a wedge of simple fruit cake. Not as extravagant as the recipe for Christmas cake, this one is more cake than fruit, but has the same deep butterscotch notes from dark muscovado sugar and a comforting whiff of nostalgia. It is the sort of cake no one bakes any more, and it is good to see it again.