In a clean, dry glass jar, add the chopped dry fruits and the rum and mix well together with a wooden spoon. Seal the jar and keep in a cool, dry place away from sunlight. Every 2-3 days, give the fruit a mix and add about ¼ cup more rum if it looks too dry. You can soak the dry fruits for 1 – 4 weeks before you bake the cake.

Reheat the oven to 150 degrees for 10 minutes. In a broad pan, add the raisins and chopped prunes. Add butter, mixed spice powder, dark brown sugar, honey, orange zest from 2 oranges and orange juice from 1 and 1/2 orange add remaining half at-last if needed.

Add cocoa powder, grape juice and bring the mixture to boil in low flame. It takes about 5-8 minutes to start the mixture to bubble. Once the bubbles start to appear on the edges, switch off the gas and allow the mixture to cool for about 30 minutes. Prepare the cake tin by lining bottom and the sides of the cake. To protect the top of the cake from burning keep the side little larger the tin.

In a blender jar, add the blanched or whole almonds and make a powder. In a separate bowl add the all purpose flour, ground almonds, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and mix with a whisk to combine well. After around 30 minutes, once the mixture has cooled a little, add the beaten eggs. Now add this flour almond mix into the fruit mixture and mix with a spatula until the ingredients have combined.

If you feel the batter is thick drizzle little orange juice now to loosen the batter. Carefully pour the fruit cake mixture into the lined 20 cm with minimum of 7-8 cm height cake tin. Cover the cake tin with another wax paper on top to prevent the sides from burning. Transfer the cake tin to the oven and bake for around 1 and 3/4 to 2 hours, or until the top of the cake is firm. If you insert a sharp knife into the middle of the cake the knife should come out clean.