Mary Berry’s classic rich Christmas cake – recipe

Christmas is a time for delicious food, drink and laughter with family and friends. Some people also have their own traditions that they honour every year without fail, like making a Christmas cake.

If you want to make your own but you don't know where to start, follow Mary Berry's classic recipe below that we have picked for you to try.

We promise it's really tasty and you can enjoy it with a dollop of cream or ice cream if you fancy being extra indulgent…

Ingredients

115g red or natural glacé cherries, quartered

115g ready-to-eat dried apricots, snipped into pieces

275g currants

175g sultanas

175g raisins

55g candied peel, finely chopped

3 tbsp brandy

225g plain flour

¼ level tsp freshly grated nutmeg

½ level tsp ground mixed spice

225g butter, softened

225g dark muscovado sugar

4 large eggs

55g chopped almonds (scant)

1 tbsp black treacle

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

To finish

Brandy, to feed the cake

675g almond paste or marzipan

To decorate

675g fondant or ready-to-roll icing

Almond paste (leftover from putting over the cake)

Green food colouring

Icing sugar, sifted

Ribbon (or your favourite decorations)

Method

■ Begin this cake the night before you bake it. Place the cherries in a sieve and rinse. Drain and dry thoroughly.

■ Measure all the fruits and chopped peel into a large bowl. Mix in the brandy, cover and leave in a cool place overnight.

■ Preheat the oven to 140°C/ 120°C fan/gas mark 1. Grease a 20cm deep round cake tin, then line the base and sides with a double layer of baking paper.

■ Measure the flour, spices, butter, sugar, eggs, almonds, treacle and lemon and orange zests into a bowl. Beat well, then fold in the soaked fruits.

■ Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and spread out evenly. Cover the top of the cake loosely with a double layer of baking paper. Bake in the oven for about 4½-4¾ hours, or until the cake feels firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

■ Leave the cake to cool in the tin. When cool, pierce the cake at intervals with a skewer and feed with a little brandy. Wrap the completely cold cake in a double layer of baking paper, and again in foil, and store in a cool place, feeding at intervals with more brandy. Don’t remove the lining paper when storing as this helps to keep the cake moist.

■ Cover the cake with almond paste or marzipan about a week before icing.

■ Then it’s time to ice the cake with fondant or ready-to-roll icing. Colour the almond paste (left over from putting the almond paste on the cake) dark green.

■ Roll out and cut into 2.5cm wide strips. Cut into diamonds then, with the base of an icing nozzle, remove half circles from the sides of the diamonds to give holly-shaped leaves. Make vein marks on the leaves with a knife, bend the leaves over the handles of wooden spoons, leave to dry.

■ Decorate the cake with the holly leaves, dust with icing sugar and tie a ribbon around the sides of the cake.

Extracted from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible by Mary Berry (BBC Books, £28). Photography: Ant Duncan

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