180 g glacé and candied fruit (cherries, pineapple, papaya, cranberries etc.), diced
50 ml Amaretto di Saronno
180 g plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
180 g butter or margarine
180 g caster sugar
4 eggs
100 g ground almonds
A few drops almond essence
Apricot jam
200 g marzipan
250 g ready-to-roll icing
Gold and silver balls and ribbon to decorate

Put the glacé and candied fruit into a small bowl, pour on the Amaretto and leave to soak for at least an hour. Preheat the oven to 180˚C and grease and line a 20-cm cake tin with baking paper. Sift together the flour and baking powder.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in eggs, one at a time, adding a tablespoon of the sifted flour with each one. Fold in the rest of the flour, the ground almonds, almond essence and soaked fruit. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes. A cocktail stick inserted in the centre should come out cleanly. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely.

Turn the cake upside down, so you have a flat surface for decorating. Brush the top of the cake with a little apricot jam, then roll out the marzipan to a round large enough to fit the top. Reserving a quarter of the icing to make some decorations, roll out the rest and cover the top, lightly moistening the marzipan first. Decorate with icing stars or holly leaves and gold and silver balls, then tie a ribbon around the outside. Store in an airtight tin.