Use a happy hack to keep this cake spiced and fruity without a looong list of ingredients and hours in the kitchen.
of your reference intake. Typical energy values per 100g: 1540kj/368kcal
Ready in: 1 hr 40 mins | With icing: 2 hr 15 mins
Serves: 12-14
Ingredients
225g Bake by Asda Plain Flour
½ tsp Bake by Asda Baking Powder
1½ tsp Cook by Asda Ground Mixed Spice
125g light brown sugar
100g glacé cherries, quartered, plus 2–3 extra to decorate
1 orange, half zested, plus 2 tbsp juice
3 eggs
125g unsalted butter, melted
411g jar Asda Tasty Mincemeat
1 tbsp apricot jam
275g Asda White Marzipan
250g royal icing sugar, plus a little extra for rolling
a few drops green food colouring gel
Method
Preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C fan/gas 2 and grease and line a 24cm/900g loaf tin on the base and all sides.
Mix the flour, baking powder, spice and sugar in a large mixing bowl, then stir through the glacé cherries and zest. In another bowl, beat the eggs, melted butter and mincemeat with a fork. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, then transfer to the lined tin. Level the top and bake for 1 hr 30/35 mins until a skewer poked into the centre of the sponge comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin, then wrap well and freeze for 2 months, or remove from the tin to decorate straightaway.
To decorate, warm the jam with 1 tsp water in a microwave until runny. Brush over the top of the cake. Roll out 175g marzipan on an icing sugar-dusted work surface into a rough rectangle shape big enough to cover the top of the cake, then stick on. Trim any excess. Gradually add enough orange juice to the icing sugar to get a stiff but spreadable icing. Spread over the cake, allowing a little of the white icing to drip over the edges (like drifts of snow!).
Knead a few drops of food colouring into the remaining marzipan until green, dusting with extra icing sugar if it gets too sticky. Roll out thinly then use a 4–5cm round cutter to stamp out circles. Use a smaller plain piping nozzle tip, bottle top or pen lid to cut out the sides of each circle to create holly leaf shapes. Re-roll trimmings and repeat. Use a knife to add leaf markings.
Arrange the holly leaves on top of the iced cake with extra glacé cherries, then leave to firm up for about 6 hrs, or overnight, before slicing and serving. It’ll keep for a week (or before icing, wrap in foil and freeze for 2 months, ready for icing nearer the big day).
Cook's Tips
Swap homemade ‘holly and berries’ for even easier decorating, by using Asda Holly & Berries Sprinkle Mix or similar.
If you don’t fancy decorating, this loaf is equally delicious sliced and buttered like a teabread (with brandy butter, if you like, for extra festive-feels!)
