Food and recipes have always offered comfort to Diana Henry. As she brings out a book celebrating her life as a food writer, she reveals how festive cooking brings her the most joy of all

SERVES 8-10 PREP 10 mins plus cooling and setting COOK 2 hrs 45 mins EASY V 1kg mixed dried fruit 1 lemon, zested and juiced 150ml sherry, plus 3 tbsp 250g butter 200g light muscovado sugar 150g plain

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To truly understand Irish food you need to cook with what’s around you in the hedgerows, gardens, fields and ocean. Irish cooking is rooted in simplicity, shaped by the land and sea, and passed down t