Nancy’s Rudolph Christmas cake - Good Food Middle East

Ingredients

• 2 x 500g packs mixed dried fruit and peel
• 100g glacé cherries, washed, dried and cut into quarters
• 4 tbsp Cointreau, brandy or Madeira (or the juice from the orange, below), plus a little extra for soaking, if you like
• 250g pack salted butter
• 250g soft dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 5 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 250g plain flour
• ½ whole nutmeg, finely grated
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• zest 1 orange
• zest 1 lemon
• 85g smooth apricot jam, melted
• 1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting
• 750g marzipan
• 1.2kg ready-to-roll white icing
• brown, red and black food colouring
• 3 pretzels, halved
• gold string
• sparkling red ribbon, to tie around the base
• a pin