Gross, but maybe better than normal fruitcake

The Guardian recently posted Kate Young's tribute to the early Philip Pullman series The Ruby in the Smoke, complete with a recipe for a fruit cake mentioned in the series. I wasn't a huge fan of the Ruby series, and I'm even less of a fan of fruitcake (any non-cheese-related food that needs to "age" for months is a no-go, as far as I'm concerned), but this looks far more appetizing than most.