Mary Berry’s Christmas cake recipe

Royal icing is a smooth paste of icing sugar that is mouldable when fresh but sets to a hard outer edge. It's ideal for wintery cakes because you can smooth it over cakes like a snowdrift, or rough it up into little peaks for a different snowy effect.

If you can’t find shop-bought royal icing or you'd rather make your own royal icing, combine 400g icing sugar with 2 egg whites and a squeeze of lemon juice. Whisk the eggs lightly. Put the icing sugar in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle, then pour in the egg whites and mix well, adding 1 tsp lemon juice.

Use any that's leftover to decorate gingerbread man biscuits or small festive cupcakes. Store it in the fridge covered with a damp cloth or clingfilm. When you’re ready to use it again bring it to room temperature and stir well. You will need to mix with a spoon or whisk until the icing regains a thicker texture.

For the ultimate Christmas cake, Mary recommends baking your cake in September. Some recipes say that six weeks is fine, but this may result in a more crumbly texture and the cake won’t have the chance to soak up the full quota of booze it needs for a full festive flavour.

Mary Berry says: 'Allow three days for marinating the fruit in sherry. This is essential to plump up and flavour the fruit. If you cut the soaking time, there will be surplus liquid which will alter the texture of the cake.'

This recipe calls for sherry, but brandy and rum make for nice alternatives. Don’t be tempted to go too cheap on the booze, as it tends to pack a flavourful punch, and you can really notice the difference in the final cake.

Yes, but make sure you wrap it in a double layer of greaseproof paper or baking parchment first as the cake may react with the foil. Two layers of foil should keep the cake airtight.

Yes, although greaseproof paper and foil are preferable. As you’ll be regularly unwrapping the cake and dousing it in sherry, foil and paper will be much easier to rewrap.

Feeding a Christmas cake means pricking the surface with a fine skewer and pouring a little sherry over it. Pricking the cake allows the sherry to be absorbed into the depths of the sponge.

It's important because it keeps the cake moist and well preserved, and intensifies those rich fruity flavours. Feed it once a week, without removing the greaseproof paper as this keeps it moist.

Absolutely. Simply replace the alcohol with orange, grape, or apple juice. The end result won’t have quite the same flavour, but it will still be rich and fruity. Because it does not have alcohol as a preservative, it won't keep as well as usual, so it's best to make it only about a month in advance.

If, like Mary, you have an Aga, it’s easy to cook the cake here instead of a conventional or fan oven. Mary recommends mixing the cake the day before and then baking it in the simmering oven compartment the next morning. 

This can take anywhere from 5-15 hours depending on your simmering oven so you will need to keep an eye on the cake. As always, bake until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Mary adds: ‘If your Aga is old and the Simmering Oven exceedingly cool, start the cake off in the Roasting Oven on the grid shelf on the floor with the cold plain shelf above on the second set of runners. Allow to become pale golden, then carefully transfer to the Simmering Oven to bake [until cooked through].’

If you don’t like marzipan or icing but want to make your Christmas cake look impressive, Mary has an easy solution. Simply brush the cake with the warm apricot glaze then cover with nuts and dried or glacé fruits.

Cherries, apricots, dates, walnuts, pecans, almonds and pistachios are all excellent festive choices.