Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups – glace Pineapple pieces, chopped
• 1 cup – glace cherries, halved
• 1.5 cups – dried apricots, chopped
• 4 – extra-large eggs
• 1 cup – sultanas
• 250 ml – Butter
• 1 cup – castor Sugar
• 1 Lemon (juiced)
• 330 ml – self-rising flour
• 100 ml – ground Almonds
• 180 ml – blanched Almonds or Pecan nuts, coarsely chopped
• 100 ml – whole blanched Almonds or Pecan nuts
• For Icing:
• 1 cup – icing sugar, sifted
• a few drops Milk
• For decoration:
• silver balls

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140 C and prepare a 26-cm cake tin.
2. Mix the pineapple, cherries, apricots and sultanas.
3. Cream butter and castor sugar until pale yellow.
4. Add lemon juice and rind and beat well.
5. Beat in eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition.
6. Sift the flour on top, followed by ground almonds.
7. Fold in lightly.
8. Stir in fruit and chopped nuts.
9. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin.
10. Arrange the whole nuts on top.
11. Bake for three hours or until the cake is baked through and a testing skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
12. Cool on a wire rack.
13. Wrap tightly in aluminium foil and store in an air tight container.
14. Ice just before serving with a soft icing made with icing sugar and milk. Decorate with silver balls.