Mary Berry’s Victorian tennis fruit cake recipe from the eighteen nighties test the remaining bakers in the technical challenge on The Great British Bake Off Victorian bake themed week.

In a Bake Off first, Paul and Mary decided to turn back the clock and task the bakers with Victorian bake challenges.

Mary therefore dusted off her antique cookbooks and found a technical recipe that dates back to the late 1800s. The bakers battle with time as they must first make a perfect fruit cake, and then create their own sugar paste and marzipan and indulge in some very detailed royal icing in a bid to impress Paul and Mary.

The ingredients are: 350g red or natural glacé cherries, cut into quarters, 1 x 225g tin pineapple in natural juice, drained and roughly chopped, 350g ready-to-eat dried apricots, chopped, 100g blanched almonds, roughly chopped, 350g sultanas, 2 lemons, finely grated zest only, 250g unsalted butter, softened, 250g caster sugar, 5 large free-range eggs, lightly beaten, 250g self-raising flour and 75g ground almonds.

For the almond paste: 250g ground almonds, 150g caster sugar, 150g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for rolling, 1 free-range egg (preferably pasteurised) and 1 tsp almond essence.

For the royal icing: 3 egg whites (preferably pasteurised), 675g icing sugar, sifted and gel food colouring in dusky pink and autumn leaf.

For the fondant; 4 leaves gelatine, 4 tbsp liquid glucose, 1½ tsp glycerine, 500g icing sugar, gel food colouring in mint green.