I shouldn't really call it "my" fruit cake recipe because it's my mother-in-law's recipe, but it hasn't let me down yet (except when I was first over in the States and trying to adapt to the different ingredients, which was interesting), and I'm a fairly useless cook. I used to do cake decorating for a while, mostly for competitions, and I decorate one of the fruit cakes for Christmas every year but not very elaborately any more.
These are the ingredients for an 8-inch round cake tin, and you need one of the deep tins, not the shallow ones for layer cakes. You need to line the cake tin with several sheets of baking parchment to stop the cake scorching because it takes several hours to cook.
6 oz margarine
6 oz Demerara sugar (dark brown sugar is OK)
4 large eggs
7 oz plain flour
10 oz currants
7 oz sultanas (golden raisins are OK)
4 oz raisins
3 oz chopped almonds
3 oz ground almonds (just take some chopped almonds and grind them in a food processor - ground almonds are common in England but not here)
3 oz mixed peel (I usually use a large spoonful of marmalade instead)
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon mixed spice (allspice is a good alternative)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons brandy
1 tablespoon black treacle (dark molasses is OK but black treacle is better)
3 oz candied cherries (optional but pretty)
Cream fat and sugar. Add eggs and flour and mix well. Add the other ingredients except the cherries, and mix slowly till thoroughly mixed. Add the cherries and mix carefully for a short time so they're distributed in the mixture but not torn to pieces. Put the mixture into the cake tin, and bake at 275 degrees for about 3 hours.
It depends on how dark you want the cake to be; I usually leave it cooking for about half an hour after a skewer comes out clean after being stuck into the middle of the cake, but you also don't want it to dry out or scorch round the edges. This recipe doesn't give you one of the really, really dark Christmas cakes, but it's still rich. Plus, I don't think the amounts of dried fruit are that crucial; if I have a couple of extra ounces, or more raisins and fewer currants, I just use what I have.
Let the cake cool thoroughly and then wrap it in a couple of layers of baking parchment and a layer of aluminium foil (don't wrap it directly in the foil because the metal can react with the acid in the dried fruit and affect the taste), and store it somewhere cool. I usually make my Christmas cakes about a month ahead of time, but they can be made at the last minute. Some people open them up during the storage time and pour sherry or brandy on them, but they can get soggy if you do too much of that.
A variation I use for Easter to make a simnel cake is to roll out some almond paste (usually a 7-oz tube is enough) to make a circle slightly smaller than the 8-inch cake tin. Then I put about half the cake mix in the tin, put the almond paste circle on top of it, and add the rest of the cake mix on top of the almond paste. That takes a bit longer to cook, but for people who like almond paste, it's a nice alternative. The simnel cake is decorated with another almond paste circle on top, together with 11 almond paste balls round the edge of the circle, and then put under the grill to brown. I decorate the Christmas cake with almond paste and sugarpaste icing; I gave up using royal icing some years ago, partly because it's such a royal (!) pain and partly because of all the salmonella scares. Sugarpaste is much easier; just roll it out and sling it over the cake!