With Christmas racing around already, now is the perfect time to start preparing your Christmas cake for the big day. We are lucky to have our hands on our founder Rebecca's lovely mum Sue's very own special family Christmas cake recipe to share with you.

Ingredients:

227g butter
227g caster sugar
450g plain flour
1.5kg mixed dried fruit
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp lemon essence
1 tsp almond essence
3 eggs
1 cup milk

Method:

Firstly, pre-heat your oven to 140° celsius, and prepare a medium-sized cake tin, lined with baking paper.

In a big mixing bowl, rub the butter into the flour. Add all other dry ingredients and essences. Cover the bowl and leave mixture to stand, ideally overnight or at least a few hours

Once mix is done resting, heat the milk in a pan, until nearly boiling. Lightly beat the eggs together, then add the eggs to the milk in the pan and keep mixing (aiming to make a light custard)

Leave the custard mix to cool fully. Once cool, mix it into the prepared ingredients, until it's all well mixed. Pour the finished mix into your cake tin.

Bake for 3-4 hours, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Once done, remove the cake from the oven and leave the cake to cool completely in the tin.

If you decide to 'feed' your Christmas cake with alcohol in advance, when the cake first comes out of the oven, poke holes on top with a skewer, and spoon over 2 tbsp of your chosen alcohol (rum, brandy, or whisky). Wrap the cake in cling-wrap and store it in a cool dark place. Every week until 1 week before Christmas, poke more holes and spoon over 2 tbsp of alcohol each time.

Sue recommends the delicious 'Brandy Butter Icing' recipe from the Edmonds Cook Book as the perfect topping for your Christmas Cake creation should you fancy.

Thank you Sue for sharing this special family recipe with us!