Preheat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3. Grease and line a 23cm/9in deep, round cake tin with a single layer of baking paper.

Measure the eggs, butter, flour, sugar and ground almonds into a bowl and whisk together. Add the chopped almonds, lemon zest and dried fruit. Mix well, spoon into the tin and level off the top.

Bake for 2¼–2½ hours until golden-brown. You may need to cover with foil if it's getting too brown.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, before removing onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.

To decorate, remove the baking paper and place the cake on a gold cake board. Brush with the apricot jam.

Lightly dust a work surface with a little icing sugar and roll out the marzipan to a circle slightly bigger than the cake. Cover and smooth over the surface and sides. Brush with a light sprinkling of water.

Lightly dust a work surface with a little icing sugar. Roll out the gold icing to a circle slightly bigger than the cake. Cover the marzipan and smooth the surface. Trim the excess icing, then tuck under the cake. Brush with the gold dust to create a metallic finish.

Wrap the lace around the bottom of the cake and smooth.

Sprinkle icing sugar over the worktop and roll out the white icing. Cut out a scalloped fringe, stars and crown shapes using small cutters. Stick the crowns and stars around the sides of the cake using a little water. Cut out stars from the reserved gold icing and stick on the crowns. Put a silver ball on the tip of each crown.