YOU'RE not alone if you feel the time left before Christmas Day is vanishing as fast as your bank balance and creating the perfect home-baked feast is as likely as Rudolph landing on your roof.

YOU'RE not alone if you feel the time left before Christmas Day is vanishing as fast as your bank balance and creating the perfect home-baked feast is as likely as Rudolph landing on your roof.

But even if all you've whipped so far is yourself into a frenzy you can still - even at this late hour - produce some delicious traditional festive fare, although Christmas cake and Christmas puddings are usually made weeks if not months in advance.

However, Jane Asher, author of Beautiful Baking (Simon & Schuster, £10.99) has a recipe for a last minute Christmas cake.

She said: "Christmas is busy and stressful so I believe you should cheat as much as makes you comfortable. Cutting corners is completely permissible and it's not too late to make a great cake which everyone would love."

So why not try her tasty treat? It makes 30-35 small portions Asher said: "This recipe is perfect if you've forgotten, or been too busy, to make a cake ahead of time.

"The heating and soaking of the fruit in the boozy liquid, along with the use of dark brown sugar, gives an overnight appearance of maturity."

WHAT DO I NEED?

750g mixed dried fruit

150g glace cherries

225ml Guinness

100ml whisky

75ml orange juice

zest of one orange

2 tbsp black treacle

200g spreadable butter

200g soft brown muscovado sugar

250g plain flour

1 heaped tsp (7ml) baking powder

tsp mixed spice

75g chopped Brazil nuts or almonds

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Place the dried fruit, cherries, Guinness, whisky, orange juice, zest and treacle in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. Preferably, transfer to a bowl and refrigerate overnight - but don't worry if you can't; just leave it soaking as long as you can.

Preheat the oven to 140C/125C fan assisted/275F, gas mark 2. Lightly grease a 20cm round deep cake tin and line with baking parchment or a shaped silicon sheet.

Place the remaining ingredients, except for the nuts, in a large bowl and mix thoroughly (I did mine in an electric mixer because I was feeling lazy). Beat until smooth, then fold in the soaked fruit and the nuts. Spoon into the prepared tin and level the top, making a slight hollow in the centre.

Bake for three hours, then take a look: cover the top with more paper or silicon if it is over-browning. Bake for a further half to one hour, or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so in the tin, then turn out onto a rack.

When completely cool, wrap the cake in baking parchment and then in foil and store in an airtight tin somewhere cool and dry until it's time to decorate it. Every couple of weeks (or more often, if you're short of time), unwrap the cake, make a few holes in the top with a skewer, and spoon over a little brandy or whisky (or orange juice if you prefer). This keeps the cake moist - and makes it taste even better.

If you really like moist cake with no crust', then leave the cake in the tin when it comes out of the oven and feed it with the alcohol in that.

If you like marzipan, you need to put it on the cake a couple of days before you ice it, to make sure the oil in the marzipan doesn't seep into the icing. White marzipan (shop bought is fine) is less likely to discolour the surface especially if you use roll out icing, rather than royal.

With a sharp, serrated knife, trim the top of the cake if necessary and turn it upside down, to give it a flat surface.

Knead 450g white marzipan until soft. Roll it out on a work surface (or silicon sheet) dusted with a little icing sugar, till it's a circle large enough to cover the whole cake.

Brush the cake with a little sieved apricot jam. Roll up the marzipan onto the rolling pin, then unroll to drape over the cake. Smooth the marzipan with your hands until it covers the cake evenly, then trim away any excess from the bottom edge.

Wrap the cake loosely in baking parchment and leave for a day or so before decorating.

As it's such a busy time of year it's a good opportunity to make use of ready-made icings and decorations. You can put a decoration straight on to the marzipan if the centrepiece is mounted on its own little board, so it can be taken off and put on the table once the cake is cut.

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