Christmas Honey Panforte

Preheat oven to 150C fanbake and thoroughly grease or line with baking paper a 20cm-diameter springform cake tin.

Combine nuts and fruit and mix with flour, cocoa and cinnamon. Boil the honey and sugar in a saucepan until mixture forms a soft ball when a drop is dripped into a cup of cold water. Add chocolate and stir until it is melted and the mixture is smooth. Pour into dry ingredients and quickly mix with a very strong wooden spoon (or your hands) until combined.

Press into tin and bake for about 35 minutes or until set. Remove from tin while still warm. When cool, dust liberally with icing sugar. Stored in an airtight container, it will keep for weeks.

It's a good idea to use clean heavy plastic gloves to mix this dense Italian festive fruitcake so you don't burn your hands. You can use different types of fruit and nuts, as long as you keep the quantities constant.

They do tend to spread a little when they cook, so just round them up into tight circles with a flat knife after they come out of the oven then leave to set and cool fully before you take them off the baking paper and store them. Panforte is very rich, so serve it in very thin slices.