Last-minute Christmas cake

Don’t worry, there’s still time to make your Christmas cake with this 11th-hour recipe, says Jo Rees

For those with golden syrup running through their veins, making the Christmas cake isn’t a chore, however, if the opportunity to bake your own cake eluded you this year (no judgement here), rest assured you can still assemble something decent, even at the last minute.

Our favourite Christmas cake recipe includes mincemeat, so the fruit has already been soaking in moisture for months, which makes it a useful for a cake rustled up at the 11th hour.

Christmas cakes don’t take long to make so you’ll be the proud owner of a springy, fruity slab like the one in the picture after just a couple of hours.

You can be fairly free and easy with the type of fruits and nuts you use, as long as you stick to the ratios, so be creative and create your own signature style.

Whatever you use and however you decorate your cake – marzipan and royal or fondant icing, nuts and warm apricot conserve or even leaving it plain (the usual MO in our house as otherwise everyone just picks off the marzipan and icing) – it’s odds on it’ll be more delicious than anything you could buy.