Pre-heat your oven to 190ºC/170ºC fan.

Beat together the butter (100g) and caster sugar (100g) until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs (2 eggs) one at a time, beat after adding each egg until full combined.

Add the almond extract (1 tsp).

Sift in the self-raising flour (100g) and ground almonds (25g) and mix until fully combined.

Divide the mixture equally between 6 cupcake cases.

Use the back of a teaspoon to make a dip in the centre of each cupcake.

Add a generous teaspoon of mincemeat into the centre of each cupcake (120g in total).

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top of the cupcakes is golden (sadly the skewer test doesn’t work on these due to the mincemeat centre).

Place onto a cooling rack to cool while you make the buttercream.

Make the buttercream by beating 75g butter until soft. Add the icing sugar (75g) a spoon at a time (as this helps to prevent sugar flying everywhere) and beat until fully combined.

If you’ve been using a mixer you want to switch to doing the next bit by hand. Add the brandy (35ml) very gradually to the butter/icing sugar mix. Beat in each addition until fully combined before adding more.

Place the buttercream into a piping bag and pipe into the cupcakes.

Top with a few festive sprinkles.