even when it's' a sweet little one like this that's so beautiful that it just gives

a celebratory flourish effortlessly.

I've got 300 grams of plain flour here and

I'm adding two teaspoons of baking powder and a quarter teaspoon of bicarb.

I'd expect to find star anise, cinnamon, cloves, sichuan pepper and fennel seeds in

five spice.

Got my festive fork to mix these together.

It's already smelling good.

So that's the dry ingredients done, onto the wet.

I want 175 mls of sunflower oil or any vegetable oil ...

... 100 grams of soft dark sugar and I know sugar is not a wet ingredient but it just

absorbs more evenly into the cake this way.

And I want 250 mls of gleaming, glossy black treacle.

I love its darkness.

I know I've got a lot of dry spices but I want the fresh warmth of ginger.

... about three centimetres, 15 grams.

Now for the cider; 250 mls and it marries so well with all the spices.

And three eggs.

And now I'm ready to get mixing.

And into this dark pool I will add my dry ingredients, the festive fork giving way to

my seasonal spoon.

This is so easy to make as you can see

but you've never guess that from looking at the cake.

Time to pour this into the tin, I oiled the tin very generously.

It's very important you oil well, getting into all the crevices and especially the funnel.

Makes unmolding so much easier.

And it is very liquid but it's meant to be,

it's this that makes the cake so gorgeously tender.

And this goes into an oven at 170 degrees for 40 or 50 minutes.