Fruit cake made by boiling together dried fruit (raisins, sultanas etc) with sugar, butter and water. Flour and soda added, and baked.

Original Receipt from The Farm Cook and Rule Book 1923 (Macmillan, USA)

Ruth's Boiled Cake
½ cupful sugar
½ cupful flour
4 tablespoonfuls cold water
1 teaspoonful baking powder
3 eggs
½ teaspoonful salt
½ teaspoonful vanilla

Boil the sugar and water together until the syrup thus made forms a thread when dropped from a spoon. Beat the egg whites until stiff and dry. Pour the hot syrup over them, beating constantly until cold. Then stir in the egg yolks, beaten until light and lemon colored. Sift the dry ingredients and add them gradually. Pour in oiled tins, or better still in tins lined with oiled paper, and bake in a moderate oven until firm. This requires about 20 or 25 minutes.