I was asked to make a traditional fruit cake for Christmas by a well-loved colleague.
The dried fruit is soaked in Hogs Back O.T.T. beer for a week (this results in lovely plump fruit), baked and then fed with cognac for 2 weeks.
Half of my Christmas cake designs this year used a traditional Nordic red and white colour scheme, and as my colleague wanted a pretty cake rather than a cute cake, I chose this design for her, with the piping on the sides and the cut-out baubles on the top, with over-piping.
She said her husband (who is a fantastic artist) was reluctant to cut it as it looked so good (and as he loves fruit cake, she said that was very unlike him) :)