The Ultimate Classic Fruit Cake - cooking recipe

Ingredients

375 g golden raisins
100 ml Grand Marnier
4 eggs
300 g plain flour
375 g unsalted butter
300 g dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 lemon, juice of
375 g dried apricots
375 g sultanas
200 g mixed peel
100 g red glace cherries
150 g walnut halves
150 g whole roasted hazelnuts
Icing
1 (340 g) jar apricot jam
1 kg ready made marzipan
1 kg easy roll icing
250 g icing sugar
1 egg, separated
edible food coloring

Preparation

Place raisins in a bowl. Add enough grand Marnier/Cointreau to cover them. Cover bowl and leave for 24 hours.
Preheat oven to 150\u00b0C.
In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs one at a time. If mixture looks a bit like splitting, add a little flour.
Add sifted flour, mixed spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice and Grand Marnier. Mix together.
Gently fold in soaked raisins, dried chopped apricots, sultanas, chopped peel, cherries, walnuts and hazelnuts.
Spoon the cake mix into 2 greased and lined 22cm spring form tins.
Bake cakes for 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours.
Remove and cool on wire rack. Once cool spray with more alcohol and wrap in cling film. Keep cakes in cool dry place until you ice/decorate them.
ICING: Gently heat jam until spreadable. Spread over top and edges of cake.
Roll out marzipan very thinly to the circumference of cake, also a strip around width of cake.
Place marzipan on cake-gently pinch strip around top and side to stick them together. Repeat this with the icing. Mix together icing sugar, egg white and a few drops of food colouring into a smooth paste. Put into icing bag and decorate as desired.