Mary Berry’s been making her traditional Christmas cake recipe for as long as Paul Hollywood’s been alive. She knows what she’queen cake talking about.

If you don’t have the required tin size, go to her cake calculator to recalculate the ingredients and cooking time for your cake tin. 9in deep, round tin with a double layer of greased greaseproof paper. Add the flour and ground spice and mix thoroughly until blended. Spoon into the prepared cake tin and level the surface. Check after two hours, and if the cake is a perfect colour, cover with foil. A skewer inserted into the centre of the cake should come out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.

When cool, pierce the cake at intervals with a fine skewer and feed with a little extra brandy. Wrap the completely cold cake in a double layer of greaseproof paper and again in foil and store in a cool place for up to three months, feeding at intervals with more brandy. Don’t remove the lining paper when storing as this helps to keep the cake moist. The week before you want to serve, begin covering the cake. 2in larger than the size of the cake. Brush the sides and the top of the cake with the warm apricot jam.

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