Tuscan Christmas Panforte~ Christmas Cake

I was about to make the Christmas cake, my mum's recipe which we have been using over thirty years. But this year I passed on my version of the Christmas cake recipe to her and asked her to try it out...only because mine turned out absolutely yummy!!

Suma Rowajee of 'Cakes and More' is hosting her first event, the best part is the giveaway -  The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Here's my entry~

Ingredients:
Hazelnuts - generous 1/3cup
Almonds - generous 1/3cup
Candied Peel - 1/2cup
Candied pineapple - 1/3cup chopped finely
Dried Apricots - 1/3cup chopped finely
Grated rind of 1orange
All purpose flour - 1/2cup
Unsweetened cocoa - 2tbs
Ground cinnamon  - 1tsp
Ground coriander - 1/4tsp
Ground cloves - 1/4tsp
Freshly grated nutmeg - 1/4tsp
Caster sugar - 1/2cup
Honey - 1/2cup
To decorate:
Icing sugar

Line an 8inch cake pan with parchment paper. Spread put the hazelnut on a baking sheet and toast in a preheated oven for 10minutes until golden brown. Put them onto a dish towel and rub off the skin. Meanwhile spread out the almonds and toast in the oven for 7minutes watching them as they can easily burn. Reduce the oven temperature to 150C. Chop all the nuts and place them in a large bowl.
Add the candied peel, chopped candied pineapple, apricots, rind of the orange to the nuts and mix well. Sift together the flour, cocoa, coriander, clove, cinnamon and nutmeg into the bowl and mix well. Put the sugar and honey into a pan and set over low heat stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil and cook for 10minutes until thickened and starting to darken.Stir in the nuts mixture into the pan and mix well. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan and level the surface using the back of a damp spoon.Bake in the oven for 1hour and then transfer to wire rack to cool in the pan. Carefully remove the cake from the pan and peel off the parchment paper and. Just before serving dredge the top with icing sugar. Cut into thin wedges to serve.