I’ve built a tradition in my house and amongst family and friends that I make Christmas cakes as part of their Christmas presents so I thought I’d share my recipe with you here:

400g raisins
400g sultanas
200g currants
100g glace cherries cut in half
150 ml of rum

Steep the above in the rum over night or a couple of days.

175g Stork Margarine
175g Dark Muscavado Sugar
4 Eggs
1 Orange
300g Plain Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 heaped tsp of Mixed Spice

Method:
Preheat the oven to 150 C/130 C fan/Gas Mark 2
Cream the sugar and margarine till fluffy (or as much as your arms can handle)
Beat in the eggs then add the zest and juice of the orange.
Sift the flour, mixed spice and salt and fold in with a metal spoon.
Mix in the fruit.
Grease and line a 20 cm/8 inch square tin. (sometimes I use a deeper round one but cook for longer)
Turn the cake in and level the surface.
Bake for approx 2 1/2 hours.
Use a skewer in the middle to see if cooked (if no cake comes out)

Tips:
Leave plenty of time for the cake to mature before xmas.
Make sure you don’t open the oven in the first 2 hours as it needs level amounts of heat.
‘Feed’ the cake with rum (2 TBS) every 2/3 weeks.