Prepare your fruit – this can be done the day before. Pop the dried fruit in bowl with the candied peel, lemon zest, juice and rum. If using straight away, a quick blitz for 20-30 seconds in the microwave covered with cling plumps them up nicely. Set aside whilst preparing the batter.

Cream the butter and sugar (*=use light or dark soft or muscavado sugar if you don’t have or don’t want to go on a mission to source coconut blossom sugar). When fluffy beat in the eggs and ground almonds.

Sift over the flour, xantham gum, baking powder and mixed spice. I have a recipe in The Recipe File on the blog for your own Mixed Spice if you fancy it. Fold in gently followed by the fruits and all the juice in the bowl. Enjoy the vapours from the warm rum.

Grease your mini Victoria sponge tin if have one, if not a muffin tin will do. Divide the batter between the wells of your prepared tin and flatten the surface (don’t fill each more than 4/5 full) – stud each cake with 5 blanched almonds arranged like a flower.

Bake on 170ºC for 30-35 minutes. Be careful as the end approaches – the high fruit content means they can go from perfectly cooked to caught and a little burnt around the edges in an annoying heart beat. Rich fruit cakes, even wee ones, don’t rise lots but expect a little rise and for them to spring back when pressed in the middle. A skewer should come out clean too when inserted into the centre of each cake.

Cool completely in the tin.

When cold, unmould and pop them upside down on a baking rack. Dribble in a tsp or two into the bums of each little cake and leave to soak in for several hours if not over night before putting the right way up again.

For best flavour, pop into an airtight box and leave in a cool, dark cupboard for at least a week before trying to let them fully mature. A month would be magic.