Snowy village Christmas cake recipe

Gluten free 20cm fruit cake

1. Place all dried fruit and mixed peel in a bowl, pour in sherry and mix well. Cover with a clean cloth. Leave for 12 hours or overnight so fruit can absorb the sherry

2. Preheat oven to 150 deg C (300 deg F)

3. Grease and line tin with baking parchment

4. Wrap newspaper/brown paper around tin and secure with baker's twine

5. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until the mixture turns a pale colour

6. Beat in eggs slowly on medium speed

7. Sieve flour, salt and spices into the mixture and mix slowly on low speed

8. Fold in soaked fruit, almonds, lemon & orange zest until well mixed

9. Pour mixture into tin, level with spatula

10. Place sheet of grease proof paper on top, and make sure to leave a small circle missing from centre

11. Bake for 3 hours and 15 minutes on middle shelf

12. Place cake on a wire rack to cool

13. When cake is completely cool, remove cake from tin

14. Pierce cake several times with skewer

15. Pour 3 tsp of brandy over the top of the cake (feeding)

16. Wrap in baking parchment

17. Wrap in foil or store in an airtight container

18. Feed at regular intervals over the next few weeks