Christmas Cake

An easy Christmas cake to try. Traditionally the cake is "fed" in the days leading up to Christmas before it is finished. For this purpose, a small amount of brandy is given each day, which is then absorbed by the cake. You could also use Irish Whiskey instead of brandy.

1. The day before you plan to bake your cake, dice the dates and halve the cocktail cherries. Put these together with the raisins and sultanas in a bowl and let steep in 100ml brandy overnight. The fruit should completely absorb the liquid.
2. When you are ready to bake, cream the butter together with the brown sugar. Then gradually add the eggs and stir in.
3. Next add the syrup, orange juice and zest.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder, the spices and the ground almonds.
5. Add the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture and stir carefully.
6. Finally, add the soaked fruit and carefully fold it in.
7. Put the cake mix in a greased baking pan (20cm diameter) lined with baking paper and bake the cake in a preheated oven at 150 ° for 2.5 - 3 hours.
8. To check if your cake is done, simply stick a wooden skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready, if there are crumbs or dough on it, the cake will need more time in the oven. The surface of the cake can be loosely covered with baking paper so that it does not brown too much.
9. When the cake is ready, pierce the warm cake on the surface with a fork and soak it with 50ml of brandy. This process can be repeated for up to 7 days if desired.
10. Once you are ready to decorate, cut off the top of the cake so a flat surface is created. Then brush the cake with the apricot jam using a baking brush.
11. Roll out the marzipan on some icing sugar and carefully cover the cake with it.
12. Next, brush the cake again with jam. Then roll out the fondant thinly until it is the perfect size to cover the cake and add the fondant to the cake, trimming the edges if necessary.
13. Make some decorative elements from the remaining fondant with snowflake cutters. Some of these can be painted with gold food powder/colouring.
14. Add the snowflake decorations to the cake and enjoy!