This week, we make Christmas Cake:

Ingredients:

500g fruit & nuts; booze; 110g butter; 110g soft dark brown sugar; 2 eggs; 110g plain flour; 1/2tsp salt; 1/4tsp cinnamon: 1/4tsp nutmeg; 1tsp vanilla; 1tsp maple syrup; 

The day before.

Soak your fruit in booze, and cover.

On the day.

Grease and line a 6 inch circular cake tin with a double layer of parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 140C.

Cream the butter and the sugar until pale and then slowly add the eggs and vanilla. Sift then gently fold in the flour and spices. Then stir through the fruit, nuts, and syrup. 

Pour the batter into your prepared cake tin, and cover with another double square of parchment, with a small hole cut out. 

Bake for around three and a half hours, but you can start checking after three.

You’ll know it’s cooked when the cake pulls away from the edges of the tin and a skewer comes out clean from the centre.

Let cool to the touch in the tin, then fully cool on a wire rack. Poke holes in the cake, and lightly drip over more of the booze. Wrap and store.