My family love this cake because it is so lovely and moist and light, unlike more traditional dark cakes, which are matured for months and can be a bit heavy, especially after the Christmas meal.

350g red or natural glacé cherries

225g can pineapples in natural juice

350g ready-to-eat dried apricots

100g blanched almonds

Finely grated rind of 2 lemons

350g sultanas

250g self-raising flour

250g caster sugar

250g softened butter

75g ground almonds

5 large eggs

To decorate

Blanched almonds

Red or natural glacé cherries

Glace pineapple (available from health-food shops)

100g sifted icing sugar

1 Preheat the oven to 160C/Gas 3. Grease a 23cm deep, round cake tin and line base and sides with a double layer of baking parchment.

2 Cut the cherries into quarters, put in a sieve and rinse under running water; drain well. Drain and roughly chop the pineapples, then dry these and the cherries very thoroughly on kitchen paper. Snip the apricots into pieces and roughly chop the almonds. Place the prepared fruit and nuts in a bowl with the grated lemon rind and sultanas and mix together gently.

3 Measure the remaining ingredients into a large bowl and beat well for 1 minute until smooth. Lightly fold in the fruit and nuts, then turn the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Level the surface and decorate the top with blanched whole almonds, halved glacé cherries and pieces of glacé pineapple.

4 Bake for about 21/4 hours or until golden brown ­ a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake should come out clean when it is ready. Cover loosely with foil after 1 hour to prevent the top becoming too dark. Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack. Mix the icing sugar with a little water and drizzle over the cake to glaze.

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