Easy Christmas Loaf 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 simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. Leave to stand until needed.
2. Preheat your oven to 160C / 140C fan / gas mark 3 / 325F. Line 2 x 1lb (450g) loaf tins with loaf tin liners.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar thoroughly.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating the mixture until smooth after each one.
5. Gently fold in the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon until fully incorporated.
6. Add the glacé cherries and the dried fruit, plus any remaining liquid from the saucepan. (There should be very little liquid left, as most of it will have soaked into the fruit or evaporated.) Stir gently until the fruit is evenly distributed.
7. Tip the cake mixture into your prepared loaf tins and get them 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.)
8. 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 200g of the marzipan and roll it so it is big enough to cut 2 rectangles out the same size as the top of the 2 cakes. Cut the 2 rectangles out, using the cake tin as a guide to help you get the right size.
2. Brush the 2 loaf cakes with a very small amount of cold water. (This is to help the marzipan stick to the cake – but be very sparing, you don’t want to make the cakes wet!)
3. Place 1 marzipan rectangle on top of 1 of the loaf cakes and trim any overhanging edges with a sharp knife. Repeat for the other loaf cake, so both cakes are covered with a single layer of marzipan.
4. Roll out the white fondant icing so it is big enough to cut 2 rectangles out the same size as the top of the 2 cakes. Cut the 2 rectangles out, again using the cake tin as a guide to help you get the right size.
5. Brush the marzipan layer with a very small amount of cold water.
6. Place 1 fondant rectangle on top of the marzipan layer on 1 of the loaf cakes and trim any overhanging edges with a sharp knife. Repeat for the other loaf cake, so both cakes are covered with a single layer of marzipan, topped with a single layer of fondant icing.
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 cakes, using a little cold water on the back of each star to stick them down.
9. Your cakes are now ready to eat!