Put 75g dried fruit, 25g candied peel and 60ml Marsala into a small saucepan. Bring to just under the boil, take off the heat, cover and leave overnight.

Heat the oven to 170C/ 160C fan/gas mark 3½. Grease a 20-22cm square cake tin and line it with baking parchment.

Sift 350g flour and 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl, then stir through 150g coarsely chopped blanched almonds, 25g toasted and coarsely chopped blanched hazelnuts, 25g coarsely chopped walnuts and 25g toasted pine nuts.

Gently heat 75g honey, 75g jam, 25g marmalade, 150g sugar and 50g butter in a saucepan. Stir to help the sugar dissolve. Add the orange zest, spices and soaked dried fruit (with its liquid).

Pour this mixture over the flour and bicarbonate of soda, then add 375g peeled, cored and grated eating apples and 75g finely chopped dark chocolate. Stir to combine. The mixture might be a little dry, so add more Marsala if you need to – only enough to help things combine.

Scrape into the prepared tin. Level the top of the cake with a wet spoon. Bake for 30 minutes, then check the cake by inserting a skewer; it should come out clean.

If your cake isn’t quite ready, cover the top with foil and put it back in the oven for 5-10 minutes, then do the skewer test again. Let the cake cool a bit – it’s fragile when it’s hot – then lift it out of the tin.

Pierce the top all over with a skewer and spoon about 5 tbsp Marsala into the holes. Gently turn the cake over and do the same thing on the other side.

If the top is slightly souffléd rather than flat, use a sharp serrated knife to cut off the top, leaving a flat surface.

Gently heat 75g apricot jam in a small saucepan with 1 tbsp of water until it melts. Push the jam through a sieve to remove the bits of fruit. Leave for about 10 minutes to cool

Using a pastry brush, paint the glaze over the top of the cake. You need a sticky surface so that the fruits and nuts stay in place.

Decorate with glacé fruits and nuts, if using, making sure there are no empty spaces. You can decorate the cake in stripes or try something less graphic. Brush quite thickly with more apricot glaze (you might not use all of it) so that it is gorgeous and glossy.

Let the glaze set.

Keep the cake wrapped up in foil or baking parchment, though not tightly on the top as you must not ruin the glaze – you should create a kind of ‘tent’ above the fruit. This is good with a glass of Marsala – obviously – or a strong espresso.