All-In-One Christmas Cake

For the cake…

1. Place the dried fruit in a large saucepan. Squeeze over the juice of the orange and pour over the sherry and boiling water. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat right down and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes.
2. Preheat your oven to 160C / 140C fan / gas mark 3 / 325F. Grease and line your cake pan with baking paper. (See just above the recipe card for step by step instructions and photos of how to line your cake pan.)
3. When the fruit has been simmering for 10 minutes, turn it off and remove the pan from the heat. Add the fridge-cold butter to the pan, and stir until the butter has completely melted and fully mixed in.
4. Next, add the dark brown sugar, and stir until fully mixed in.
5. Then, add the glacé cherries, and stir until fully mixed in.
6. Next, add the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon, and stir until just mixed in.
7. Then, add the beaten eggs, and stir quickly until just mixed in. (See Note 2.)
8. Tip the cake mixture into your prepared cake tin and get it straight into the oven. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a skewer, inserted into the middle of the cake, comes out clean. (I check every 5 minutes from 50 minutes. It usually takes 55 minutes in my oven.)
9. Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin (or until cool enough to handle without burning your hands!), then remove the cake from the tin and allow to fully cool on a wire cooling rack… The cake should take approximately 2 hours from the time it comes out of the oven to cool fully. Do not decorate until completely cool!

To decorate…

1. Dust your worksurface with icing sugar. Take half the marzipan and roll it out to just a fraction larger than the cake. Cut out a circle the same size as the top of the cake, using a knife – use the cake tin as a guide to help you get the circle just the right size!
2. Brush the cake with a very small amount of cold water. (This is to help the marzipan stick to the cake – be very sparing, you don’t want to make the cake wet!)
3. Place the marzipan circle on top of the cake and trim any overhanging edges with a sharp knife.
4. Roll out the white fondant icing to just a fraction larger than the cake. Cut a circle the same size as the top of the cake, using a knife – again, use the cake tin to help you get the circle just the right size!
5. Brush the marzipan layer with a very small amount of cold water.
6. Place the fondant on top of the cake and trim any overhanging edges with a sharp knife.
7. Roll out the remaining marzipan and cut out a variety of different sized stars. (Or whatever Christmas shapes you like!)
8. Place these stars at random on top of the cake, using a little cold water on the back of each star to stick them down.
9. Your cake is now ready to eat!