As-you-like-it Christmas cake

Ingredients

• 1 kg fruit mixed dried chopped (any blend of raisins, sultanas, currants, peel, cranberries, glacé cherries, apricots, dates, figs or pineapple)
• 150 ml freshly tea for feeding brewed
• 2  lemon zest 
• 250 g pack butter unsalted softened for the tin
• 250 g brown sugar light soft
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 4  eggs 
• 200 g flour plain
• 2 tsp spice mixed
• 100 g brazil nuts whole flaked chopped

Equipment

• bowl
• oven
• cake form
• aluminum foil
• skewers

Directions

1. Put your chosen dried fruit mixture into a large bowl with your choice of alcohol or tea, citrus zest and juice.
2. Mix well, cover and leave overnight.
3. Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas
4. Butter and double-line a deep cake tin 20cm round or 18cm square with enough baking parchment to come about 2.5cm above the top of the tin. Wrap the outside of the tin with a few sheets of newspaper, securing with staples or string.
5. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy, then beat in the eggs one by one. Tip in the flour, mixed spice, soaked dried fruit and any liquid from the bowl, plus your chosen nuts, if using. Stir everything together, then scrape into the cake tin. Using the back of your spoon, make a slight dent in the centre of the mixture, then bake for 1 hrs.
6. Reduce oven to 140C/120C fan/gas 1, loosely cover the top of the cake with a double sheet of foil or baking parchment, and bake for another 45 mins-1 hr or until a skewer poked right to the bottom comes out clean. Cool in the tin, then lift out and wrap in greaseproof paper or baking parchment. Keep in a cake tin with a tight-fitting lid, or wrapped in a large sheet of foil, in a cool, dark place for up to 6 months. Open the cake every week or two to feed by poking with a skewer in several places and dribbling over a little more of your chosen alcohol or tea.