Preparing for Christmas

It's that time of year again, time to start preparing my Christmas cake. Actually according to the recipe I am following I should have started about 3 weeks ago! Oh well, better late than never. 

I have made a couple of Christmas cakes using this recipe before and they have turned out really well. It's from Ruth Clements' blog, The Pink Whisk. 

Christmas cake 2011

This year I am freestyling a bit with the fruit mix. My dad will not eat currants raisins or sultanas so I have missed them out the recipe. 

So at the moment I have a mix of cranberries,figs,dates,apricots,glacé cherries,dried cherries and fruit peel maturing in a brandy/sherry/orange sugar syrup. 

It's safely tucked away in a Tupperware box in my kitchen cupboard and It will stay there for next few weeks! 

I'll be back when it's time to make the cake. 

Christmas Cake

I know it is a little late to be blogging about Christmas related baking but I have had little interent access since moving house and really wanted to share this as I was very proud of handy work!

So this was my first attempt at a Christmas cake but I was really keen to have a go.
I got the recipe from The Pink Whisk blog and it was so simple. I loved how my kitchen was filled with the smells of Christmas in the middle of October as I prepared the fruit.

The cake was part of my contribution to my family's Christmas and I have never seen a Christmas cake disappear so quickly. Definitely a recipe to come out again next year!