Step 1

Line a 16cm springform tin with paper and set aside. You will have too much mixture for this one tin and will need to use other tins.

Step 2

Place the water into Thermomix bowl and bring to the boil *8 min/100ºC/speed 3*.

Step 3

Remove a few of the good looking nuts and glace fruits from the Festive cake mix and set aside for decoration purposes later.

Step 4

Place all other ingredients into a large bowl and combine extremely well.

Step 5

Divide between cake tins of choice. I did 9 mini’s and still had enough for the bigger one. Press the reserved fruit and nuts into the tops of the cakes, adding more if necessary. (I added almonds and a few cherries.)

Step 6

Preheat the oven to 160ºC.

Step 7

The mini’s can be cooked in the oven without the use of the Varoma at all. Approx 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your cakes.

Step 8

Place the larger cake into the Varoma dish and steam 60 min/Varoma/speed You will need to add water, steam further 30 min/Varoma/speed 4.

Step 9

Remove cake from Varoma and transfer to a baking tray. Place into the oven and cook approx 25 minutes until top is firm to the touch and clearly dry.

Step 10

You have just cooked a Christmas cake without all the dramas normally associated with Christmas cake baking. It is easy, moist and most importantly, not burnt around the edges…gotta love that! If you wanted to do this in your Combi Steam Oven, set it to 130ºC on steam only for the first hour. Then change setting to Combi and use about 160ºC until cake is fully cooked.