A day in advance (or a couple of hours before if in a hurry) place the mixed fruit, chopped blanched almonds and sherry into an airtight container. Gently shake the container to mix the sherry through and set aside until needed.

Place the slices of day old bread into a food processor and process until finely crumbed. Set aside until needed.

Sift the flour and spices into a separate bowl and set aside until needed.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, add the butter and brown sugar and beat for 8 minutes or until it's turned pale and creamy. Add the vanilla extract and mix through for one minute.

With the beaters running at a low speed, add the flour and spice mixture gradually to the bowl, alternating with the eggs. Once all the flour and spice mix and eggs have been added and mixed together, remove the bowl from the mixer stand and add the breadcrumbs and soaked mixed fruit and stir through with a large spoon.

Transfer the mixture into a 1.6L pudding tin, making sure it has been well greased.

Cover the Christmas pudding mixture with a piece of baking paper which has been cut into a circle the same size as the pudding tin. Place the lid onto your pudding tin and tie two pieces of string to the sides to help you remove the pudding tin from the boiling water later.

In the meantime, place an old plate at the bottom of a LARGE pot of water and bring it to the boil on your stovetop. Use the two pieces of string to carefully lower the pudding into the boiling water (the water level should come halfway up the side of the pudding tin) and place it on the plate.

Cover the pot and allow the pudding to steam for 3 hours - you will need to add extra boiling water to the pot as it steams.