Preheat the oven to 160C/320F/gas 2.5.
Grease and line the cake tin with baking paper.
Place the butter and sugar in the large mixing bowl and beat together with the electric hand whisk until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat in thoroughly after each addition.
Sift in the self-raising flour and fold in.
Add the ground almonds and stir in thoroughly.
Add the cherries, pineapple pieces, dried fruit, chopped almonds and lemon zest and stir in until evenly incorporated.
Push the dried bean, dried pea and clove into 3 separate areas of the batter.
Transfer the cake batter into the prepared cake tin and level off the top.
Place in the oven and bake for 2¼–2½ hours until golden-brown. Check after 1½ hours that the top of the cake isn’t burning. If it is, place a piece of kitchen foil over the top.
Remove the cake from the oven and use a skewer to pierce into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean it is done. If it doesn’t return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Keep checking and returning to the oven as necessary.
Once baked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, before removing onto the cooling rack and allowing to cool to room temperature.
To decorate, remove the baking paper and place the cake on the gold cake board.
Brush the cake with the apricot jam.
Lightly dust a work surface with a little icing sugar, take roughly two thirds of the marzipan and roll into a ball. Roll out to 3cm thick. Press down around the edges of the disc. You are creating a shallow dome that will fit the diameter of the top of the cake.
Place on top of the cake.
Roll out the remaining marzipan into a long rectangle 5mm thick. Cut two strips the width of the height of the sides of the cake and the length of half the circumference of it.
Place the first strip around half of the cake and then the other around the other half. Gently press down and massage the joins.
Use your fingertips to bring the join between the edges of the marzipan dome and the marzipan wall together.
Roll out the fondant icing to a circle that will cover the whole cake.
Brush the marzipan with a little water and carefully place the fondant icing over the cake and smooth down, being careful not to create any creases on the sides of the cake. Trim the excess icing, then tuck under the cake.
Place 2 tablespoons of icing sugar in the small bowl and mix with a little water to create a ‘glue’ for sticking decorations onto the fondant icing.
Decorate the cake as you wish, sticking your decorations down with a little icing ‘glue’. Use any decorations you like, but make sure you place a crown (home-made or purchased) at the centre of the cake.
