Coca Cola Christmas Truck Cake

To make the cake. Preheat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan, 300°F, gas mark 2).

Grease and line a 6" square cake tin using a double thickness of baking paper. Tie a double thickness of brown paper round the outside of the tin and then stand the tin on a baking sheet which has also been lined with a double thickness of brown paper.

Place the currants, sultanas, raisins, glace cherries and mixed peel in a large mixing bowl. Add the brandy and Coca Cola, mix well and cover with cling film.  Leave to soak for a few hours, preferably overnight.

Sift the flour, mixed spice and cinnamon together in another large bow. Add the almonds.

Place the butter, sugar and grated lemon rind into a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy.

Gradually add the beaten eggs, adding a tablespoon of flour, if the mixture starts to curdle.

Fold in the flour and spice mix until well combined.  Finally add the soaked fruits along with any remaining liquid that may be in the bowl.  Fold until evenly distributed through the mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and spread evenly. Tap the tin on the work surface a few times so to get rid of any air pockets. Smooth the surface with a back of a spoon, making a light dip in the middle of the cake.

Bake in the center of the oven for 2 ½ hours.

Once the cake has baked, remove from the oven and leave to fully cool on a wire rack.

Once the cake has cooled, slice it into 3 equal rectangular portions. Stack two of the slices on top of the other for the truck body and then with the remaining slice cut a third off of the end. Place the small piece of cake on top of the remaining two thirds to make the front of the truck then position the cake on your cake board.

Lightly dust your surface with icing sugar and roll out red fondant icing, enough to cover the body of the truck. Before covering, brush the fruit cake with apricot jam to help the icing stay in place. You can use a cake smoother or your hand to smooth the icing into place.

Repeat the process and cover the front of the truck.

Roll 8 balls of black fondant into circles the size of a 10p coin and flatten, to create the wheels. Secure on to the truck by lightly brushing the back of the fondant wheels with water. Cut two long rectangular pieces of grey fondant and stick them to truck on both sides connecting the front to the body of the truck.

Roll an additional rectangle of grey fondant to create the front grill of the truck and use a sharp knife to make line indents for extra detail. To create the bumper on the truck roll grey fondant into a long sausage shape and wrap around the base of the front of the truck.

Roll two small circles of white fondant for the headlights, a large rectangle of grey or black fondant for the windowscreen and two small cubes of grey fondant for the wing mirrors. Secure the wing mirrors in place by inserting two tooth picks into the side of the cake so that the mirrors don’t drop off.

Roll out two more long sausage shapes for each side of the truck and a side window for each side. You can also create grey wheel hubs for each of the wheels for additional details.

Roll out small sausage shapes of red fondant to create the wheel protectors and stick to over each of the wheels. Make up some white icing by mixing together icing sugar (we like Silver Spoon) and water. This will need to be quite thick so that it doesn’t run. Place into a piping bag with a small holed nozzle and begin to pipe small dots around the border of the truck.

Continue to pipe white dots over the truck to create the Christmas fairy lights effect, then roll out a rectangle of red fondant, big enough to fit the side of the truck. Using the white icing, pipe the wording “Holidays are Coming” or a personalised message of your choice on to the red fondant and leave to dry. Once the writing has set, brush the back of the fondant with water and stick to the side of the truck.