Step 1- Place the dried fruit and candied peel in a large mixing bowl, adding the 4 tbsp of brandy, and mix well. Leave this overnight to allow the fruit to absorb the flavour of the brandy, this will really help to make a delicious tasting cake!

Step 2-On the day that you plan to make the cake, grease and line a 9inch deep round cake tin with a double layer of greaseproof paper, and preheat the oven to 140 degrees celcius/120 degrees celcius in a fan oven/Gas mark 1.

Step 3-Apart from the almonds, place all the remaining ingredients in to a large mixing bowl and mix it together well. Then stir in the nuts and the soaked fruit, along with any of the remaining liquid that the fruit had been soaking in.

Step 4-Once the mixture is beaten together well, spoon it in to the 9 inch (23cm) deep round cake tin, smooth the top of the mixture and place a disk of baking paper on top. If you haven’t got a 9 inch (23cm) cake tin, you can use a 20cm square cake tin. Place the cake in the centre of the oven and cook for between 4-5 hours until the cake is a delicious golden brown colour. It should also be firm to touch. Here’s a tip, push a skewer in to the cake and pull I out again. If the skewer is clean when you pull it out, you know the cake is done. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.

Step 5- Once the cake has cooled, remove the baking paper disc, pierce the top of the cake in several places and pour over some brandy. Remove the cake from the cake tin, but leave it in the baking paper. Wrap it in more baking paper and store it in a cool place (preferably for a minimum of 3 weeks) until you want to serve it.

Step 6- When it comes to serving the cake, remove the baking paper and decorate it with the glace fruit or even ready to use icing. You could tie a ribbon around it if you are feeling extra festive! All there is left to do is share this delicious cake with your friends and family. Merry Christmas!

Step 1- Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celcius/400 degrees Fahrenheit/Gask mark 6.

Step 2-Peel and core the apples and set them to one side. Mix the flour, brown sugar orange zest and mixed spice together.

Step 3-Take about one third of the apples and place them in a pie dish. Sprinkle around half of the flour, brown sugar, orange zest and mixed spice mixture over the apples, before adding about half of the remaining apples and mixture on top again. Then neatly arrange any of the remaining apples on top and pour the orange juice on.

Step 4-Cut the butter in the pieces and place evenly among the apples.

Step 5- Take the shortcrust pastry and roll it out until it is about 4cm longer than the pie dish you are using. Cut a 1.25cm strip of pastry, wet the edges of the pie dish and stick the 1.25cm strip of pastry around the edge of the dish.

Step 6- Wet the pastry edge and place the main piece of pastry over the top of the pie dish. It is important to ensure that the edges of the pastry and pressed firmly together.

Step 7- Before placing in the oven, brush the pastry with water and sprinkle the caster sugar over it. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes at 200 degrees celcius/400 degrees Fahrenheit/Gas Mark 6 before reducing the temperature to 180 celcius/350 fahrenheit/gas mark 4 to cook for a further 30 minutes until the pastry turns a delicious golden brown colour.

Step 8-We love our apple pie with custard, but it is equally as delicious served with cream or ice cream. Enjoy!

Step 1-Preheat your oven to 220 degrees celcius/200 degrees celcius in a fan oven/Gas Mark 7. To start making the profiteroles, add the butter, 2 tbsp of caster sugar, and around 150ml of water on a saucepan. Leave the mixture to melt and bring to the boil. Take the mixture off the heat and add the flour, then beat together quickly until the dough starts to come away from the edges of the pan.

Step 2-Let the dough cool for 5 minutes then add the eggs in gradually using a food processor until the dough turns glossy. Then take two baking trays and rinse them with cold water and shake them to leave them slightly damp (to help the dough rise). Then start placing spoonfuls of the mixture on the baking trays and place in the oven to bake for around 20 minutes. Once baked, remove from the oven and cut a small slit in the base of each profiterole to ensure that they don’t sink.

Step 3-Once cooled, whip the cream and add the remaining sugar and vanilla extract to your taste. Cut each profiterole in half and add a generous amount of cream to each one and pile them up on a plate. Refrigerate them for around 1-2 hours to chill, but no longer as the pastry will go soggy.

Step 4-To make the chocolate sauce, add the caster sugar and 100ml of water to a pan and warm until it is fully dissolved. Bring this to the boil and add the cocoa powder to the dissolved mixture and stir in until it is smooth.

Step 5- Set aside the sauce for about 15 minutes, then remove the profiteroles from the fridge. Drizzle the chocolate sauce over the profiteroles, and that’s it! All that is left to do is to enjoy your very own homemade profiteroles!

Step 1- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius/Gas Mark 4. Take a 12 cup cupcake tin and line with paper muffin cases.

Step 2-Add the first 8 ingredients on the list to a mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk. You should do this until the mixture starts to become smoother. Once this is the case, fold the crushed raspberries in to the mixture.

Step 3-Divide this mixture equally between the 12 paper muffin cases, place in the oven, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the tops of the cupcakes start to turn a fantastic golden brown colour.

Step 4-For the sugar drizzle, mix the orange juice and 4 tbsp of caster sugar together until fully blended together.

Step 5- Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let them cool for between 10 and 15 minutes. Then equally split the orange sugar drizzle over the top of each cupcake.

Step 6-Serve with any of the remaining raspberries, and enjoy!