Ingredients

Step by step

1. Put the dried fruit, glacé cherries and orange zest and juice into a large pan and stir over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, until the juice begins to bubble. Remove from the heat, stir through the amaretto and cover. Leave for 2 hours or overnight, for the fruit to plump up.
2. Preheat the oven to 140°C, fan 120°C, gas 1. Spread out the flaked almonds on a baking tray and toast in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden; leave to cool. Grease and line a deep 20cm, loose-based cake tin with a double layer of baking paper, making sure that it comes up at least 4cm above the top of the tin. Wrap the outside of the tin in a couple of sheets of newspaper and secure with kitchen string. Cut another sheet of baking paper to cover the top, cutting a small circle in the centre for steam to escape during baking.
3. In your largest mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then sift over the flour and spices plus a pinch of salt. Tip in the ground and toasted almonds, the vanilla and the soaked fruits along with any liquid from the pan. Gently fold everything together, until just combined. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin, making a dent in the centre of the mixture (to help create a flat top during baking).
4. Cover the top with the prepared baking paper and bake for about 3½ hours, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out almost clean (it may be slightly sticky but shouldn’t have any uncooked mixture on it). Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack, removing the base and baking paper. Once cool, wrap in a double layer of baking paper, then in a layer of foil, and keep in a cool, dark place. The wrapped cake keeps for up to 3 months.
5. If you want to feed the cake with extra amaretto, poke a few holes in the top of the cake with a cocktail stick and feed with 1 tablespoon of amaretto every week or two. If you’re going to marzipan and ice the cake, stop feeding it at least a week beforehand, to let the surface dry out.
   Adaptations to try

   
   Skip the booze and make an alcohol-free cake using apple or orange juice instead of amaretto, and add 2 tsp almond extract if you still want that rich almond flavour.
   
   You can use pretty much any combination of dried fruit that you like in the cake, as long as it adds up to the same total weight.
   
   The amaretto can be subbed with whatever’s already in your drinks store: fruit-flavoured liqueurs, sherry, port or brandy, rum or whisky.
   
   Use up any combination of unsalted nuts that are hanging around in your cupboard; sniff and taste to make sure they aren’t stale, then toast in the oven to bring out their flavour.
   
   Don’t worry if you don’t have light brown sugar; you can use any type (other than icing sugar or jam sugar); the darker the colour, the deeper the flavour it adds to the cake.