Celebration cake

This cake is the perfect cake to have at any celebration form Christmas right threw to Birthdays or even a wedding cake.  Or if you like just make it for the fun.  Keep it in a tin and it will last and last.

You will need

350g/12oz currants

225g/8oz sultanas

225g/8oz raisins

175g/6oz glacé cherries quartered

175g/6oz diced apricots

75g/3oz mixed candied peel

4 tbsp brandy, plus lots more to feed the cake

275g/10 oz plain flour

½ tsp grated nutmeg

¾ tsp ground mixed spice

400g/14oz butter, softened

400g/14oz dark brown sugar

5 eggs

65g/2½oz chopped  almonds

1 tbsp black treacle

1 lemon, grated zest only

1 orange, grated zest only

To decorate the cake if you are not going to ice it

Whole blanched almonds

Glacé cherries, rinsed, dried and halved

Some apricot jam

Now to make this cake properly takes a few days, if not longer so you need to plan ahead. What you want to do is cook this about 1 to 3 months before you want to eat it. And about once a week splash some more brandy on the cake, this is called feeding, till you are ready to use the cake.

Start by getting the currants, sultanas, raisins, rinsed, dried and quartered cherries, chopped apricots and chopped mixed peel in a large bowl. Add the brandy and stir it altogether. Then cover this and place in a cool place over night so that all the dried fruits soak up the brandy.

Grease a deep cake tin and cut and line it with grease proof paper. Then around the outside of the tin line the walls of the tin with tin foil rapped in greaseproof paper tied around with string.  In a way I find this the hardest part of making any cake like this but you have to do it to stop the edges of the cake burning or drying out.

Once you have done this preheat your oven to 140c/275f a very low oven not to hot, this is a slow bake.  Then you are ready to make you cake batter.  Now after all the lining of tins the mixing is very, very simple.

Put your flour, grated nutmeg, mixed spice, butter, sugar, eggs, chopped almonds, black treacle and the citrus zest into a large bowl and just beat it all together. Make sure that very thing if fully combined then add your fruits that have been sitting in the brandy over night and foul that in to the mix and you have done.

Now spoon the mix in to your tin and make sure that it is all smoothed down with the back of a spoon.  Now if you are not going to ice this cake arrange on the top now some half cherries and whole almonds in a pattern. Then before you bake place a double layer of greaseproof paper loosely over the top of the cake to stop it from burning or drying out. Just do not press it down.

Now you have to bake this for about 4 to 5 hours.  What you are looking for is the cake to feel firm to the touch and a skewer pushed into the very centre of the cake comes out clean. Once you have got this take it out of the oven and allow the cake to cool in the tin.

Once the cake is cool warp it in greaseproof paper and tin foil.  Pierce the cake at regular intervals with a skewer and dribble on a splash of brandy.  Now store the cake for a month or more going back every now and then to feed the cake by dribbleing more brandy on it. Finally take some apricot jam and a little water and heat up and use this to glaze the cake if you have decorated it with the cherries and almonds.