Fennel & orange cake

Preheat the oven to 180ºC, gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin. Put the fennel into the bowl of a freestanding mixer (or in a bowl to use with electric beaters). Add the caster sugar, flour, baking powder, oil, eggs, mixed peel, walnuts, ginger and 1/3 of the fennel seeds and orange zest. Beat together on a low speed until combined, then mix on a medium speed for a further 2 minutes. Pour the batter into the tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes-1 hour 30 minutes, loosely covering with foil if browning too fast, until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool, use a serrated knife to halve the cake horizontally. To make the icing, whisk together the soft cheese, icing sugar, orange juice and the remaining orange zest and fennel seeds in a freestanding mixer (or in a bowl with electric beaters) until smooth (about 1 minute). Sandwich the two halves together with 1/2 the icing, then top with the remaining icing and decorate with the finely chopped walnuts.