Crunchy sugar topping for farmhouse fruitcake?

[JoyceBarnaby]

I have recently been making a lot of farmhouse-style fruitcake and my mum says her mum used to make one with a crunchy sugar topping she describes as "little sugar clusters".

I'm not sure how to get such an effect and she can't remember how it's done.

Does anyone have any pearls of wisdom on this?

You can use coffee sugar and break it up a little bit.

Brown sugar lumps, crushed a little

Or just demerara, lots of.

Thanks ladies.

I will try the coffee cube and the Demerara, but I get the impression it was more of a glaze with crunchy bits, IYSWIM.

I have no idea but reading the title made me go "mmmmmm".

Ha ha!

I'm eating a piece (no topping obv!) and it's very yummy.

I did a glaze type crunchy topping once for a Lemon Drizzle. It had the normal lemony sugar syrup poured into holes in the cake when warm and then topped with a lemon juice and granulated sugar mix, which was crunchy.

So for a farmhouse cake, I'd maybe go just water mixed with demerara.