Place the dried fruit in a large saucepan. Squeeze over the juice of the 2 oranges and pour over the sherry and boiling water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. Leave to stand until needed.

In a very large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar thoroughly.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating the mixture until smooth after each one.

Gently fold in the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon until fully incorporated.

Add the glacé cherries and the dried fruit, plus any remaining liquid from the saucepan. (There should be very little liquid left, as most of it will have soaked into the fruit or evaporated.) Stir gently until the fruit is evenly distributed.

Tip the cake mixture into your prepared cake tin and get it straight into the oven. Bake for 2 hours 15 minutes, or until a skewer (or toothpick, or teaspoon handle), inserted into the middle of the cake, comes out clean. (I check every 5 minutes from 2 hours. It usually takes 2 hours 15 minutes in my oven.)

Leave to cool overnight in the tin (See Note 2) then remove from the tin and decorate. Do not decorate until completely cool!

Take a large piece of baking paper and, using your cake tin (the one you just cooked your cake in!) as a guide, draw a cross shape. First draw round the base of your cake tin – this is the centre of your cross. Then tip your cake tin on its side and draw round that side. Repeat for all the other sides, then cut out your cross. When you put the cross on top of your cake it should cover the top and sides perfectly. This is now a template for your marzipan and icing.

Dust your worksurface with icing sugar. Take the marzipan and roll it out to just a fraction larger than the cross template. Place your cross template on the marzipan and cut round it, ensure you cut a little bit wider than the actual template to allow enough to overlap slightly on the corners.

Brush the cake with a very small amount of cold water. (This is to help the marzipan stick to the cake – be very sparing, you don’t want to make the cake wet!)

Lift the the marzipan on top of the cake and allow the sides to flap down. Gently squeeze together the edges and then smooth them so they look nice and neat.

Gather up the scraps of marzipan into a ball and keep them – you will need them later.

Dust your worksurface with icing sugar again. Take the fondant and roll it out to just a fraction larger than the cross template. Place your cross template on the fondant and cut round it, ensure you cut a little bit wider than the actual template to allow enough to overlap slightly on the corners.

Brush the marzipan with a very small amount of cold water. (This is to help the fondant stick to the marzipan – be very sparing, you don’t want to make the marzipan wet!)

Lift the fondant on top of the cake and allow the sides to flap down. Gently squeeze together the edges and then smooth them so they look nice and neat.

Roll out the remaining marzipan and cut out a variety of different sized stars. (Or whatever Christmas shapes you like!)

Place these stars at random on the top and sides of the cake, using a little cold water on the back of each star to stick them down.

Your cake is now ready to eat!