Spiced Rum Christmas Cake

For the fruit mixture

Mix all of the dried fruits in a large bowl very well and then stir in the spiced rum.

Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to soak for 24 hours.

For the cake

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees celcius.

Put all of the cake ingredients except the almonds into a bowl and mix very well until combined.

Stir in the nuts and the soaked fruit and any liquid left behind from the fruit.

Grease a deep 23cm round cake tin with butter and line with greaseproof paper on the bottom and sides, leaving around 2 inches of paper sticking above the top of the tin.

Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth the top. Cover the top of the cake with a circular piece of greaseproof paper, 2 sheets thick, with a small hole cut out of the centre.

Place in the centre of the preheated oven and bake slowly for 4-5 hours, until it is firm to touch and a skewer comes out clean when pushed though.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin.

When the cake has completely cooled, remove from the tin but leave the greaseproof paper around the sides and bottom.

Remove the baking paper from the top and pierce the cake several times with a skewer, then pour 1 or 2 tbsps of spiced rum over the top.

Put the greaseproof paper disc back on top of the cake and wrap the whole cake inside a layer of tin foil.

Store in an airtight container, in a cool dark place.

Once per week, remove the cake from its wrapping and repeat the process of skewering the cake and pouring over a little extra rum.

Repeat this process once per week for 6-8 weeks.

For the icing

A few days before you want to serve the cake, spoon the apricot jam over the cake and spread evenly over the top and sides of the cake.

Roll out the marzipan to desired thickness and place it over the cake.

Smooth the marzipan over edges of the cake and press down against the jam firmly. Trim any excess marzipan off.

Roll the Royal icing out to desired thickness, then brush a little water over the marzipan. This will help the icing stick to the marzipan.

Place the icing on top of the marzipan.

Smooth the icing over the cake and press it down firmly until it sticks.

Trim any excess icing off.

Run your hands all over the cake to fully smooth the icing all over.

Decorate as desired with the coloured icing pens and fasten a ribbon around the edge.