Jane Hornby’s quick and easy Christmas cake recipe

Did you forget to bake one? Don't panic! With this recipe you can have your cake and eat it in just a few hours

Of all the festive recipes, a Christmas cake requires the most amount of forethought. Traditionally, cooks have baked these on the last Sunday of November, to give the rich fruit cake time to fully mature.

However, such antique tradition doesn’t always sit well with modern lifestyles, so Jane Hornby has come up with a recipe that can be eaten straight away. The author of our no-nonsense guide, What to Bake & How to Bake It, can even give you a few tips on that final, tricky stage of cake making – the removal of the tin.

As you can gather from this short video, employing a few simple techniques, even the most amateurish baker can slip a perfectly formed cake onto your cooking rack. Even us - we've tried it. For the full ready-to-eat Festive Fruit Cake you'll have to buy a copy of Jane’s new book, What To Bake and How to Bake It. We strongly recommend you do so because we've tasted the cake and it's great - fruity and light rather than heavy and rich. And if you've finished your shopping already it's a great way to spend this Saturday or Sunday and will give even the most novice baker a great sense of achievement.