Ingredients

• Raisins - 600 gms
• Blackcurrants - 200 gms
• Dried, sour or glazed cherries - 100 gms
• Mixed dried fruits, dry prunes, apricots, apples, pears, finely chopped - 250 gms
• Liquor, plus extra to feed' the cake (brandy, sherry, wine and rum - all work well) - 400 ml
• Butter - 300 gms
• Dark brown sugar - 200 gms
• Lemon - 1
• Eggs - 4
• Treacle - 2 tbsp
• Plain flour - 300 gms
• Ground ginger - 1/2 tsp
• Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp
• A pinch of ground cloves
• Ground almonds - 150 gms
• Walnuts, chopped - 150 gms

How to Make Traditional Christmas Cake

• Soak all the fruits in the liquor well in advance (1 Month).
• Preheat the oven to 150 C and line the base and sides of a 23cm round tin or a 20cm square tin with a double layer of greaseproof paper. You'll need the side lining to be a good 8cm higher than the tin.
• Blitz half the soaked fruit in a food processor to make a paste, and stir back into the rest of the fruit.
• In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Grate in the zest of your lemon and beat in the eggs, one at a time.
• Mix in the treacle. Sift the flour and combine with the spices and ground almonds.
• Mix into the butter mixture, alternating with the soaked fruit.
• Finally, fold in the walnuts. Spoon the mixture into the lined tin and bake in the oven for about 3 hours.
• Check after 2.5 hours and then every 20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
• As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, brush with a little more liquor.
• Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins and then remove, placing it directly onto a large sheet of tin foil.
• Wrap it up twice to retain the heat for as long as possible.
• After a few hours, remove the foil and wrap the cake up again in a double sheet of greaseproof paper and a double sheet of tin foil.