The countdown begins

Posted on Tuesday 11th November 2008 | 8 Comments

Christmas cake

I’m a little late this year, but yesterday I finally got around to making a Christmas cake. For the entire day, the scent of warm fruit and brandy spread through the house and I was almost whistling Jingle Bells by bedtime. ;-)

I wish I could say that the recipe was handed down my family through the generations, but this one comes from a Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook published in 1998. But what is most important is that the recipe makes the BEST Christmas cake. One year I strayed and used Nigella’s recipe and much as I love her cupcakes, muffins, cookies and general chocolately goodness, the cake was a disappointment. I have never strayed again. :-)

The cake has been bathed in brandy and is now sitting wrapped in the back of the larder until I decide that maybe it needs a bit more feeding in the run up to the Big Day. :-P

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8 Responses to The countdown begins

  1. Aberdonian MonsterID Icon Aberdonian | Tuesday 11th November 2008 at 9:14 am |

    It looks delicious!

  2. Diane MonsterID Icon Diane | Tuesday 11th November 2008 at 9:57 am |

    Oh My Yummy! You will save me a piece won’t you???

    The recipe that mum and I have used for decades was torn out of a magazine. It’s just a few lines at the bottom of a big full-page ad for pecans :-) generally we don’t put the pecans in though.

  3. cinders MonsterID Icon cinders | Tuesday 11th November 2008 at 11:41 am |

    Yumm!!! can you send me a piece via cyber space?!

  4. Pandorasslave MonsterID Icon Pandorasslave | Tuesday 11th November 2008 at 5:23 pm |

    I have never tried the recipe from Good Housekeeping, but since we were both disappointed by Nigella’s recipe, I think I might have to try the GH Christmas cake next!

  5. Kathleen MonsterID Icon Kathleen | Tuesday 11th November 2008 at 7:01 pm |

    mmmmmm! This same smell is wafting its way through my house today too! My husband, wonderful as he is, makes two christmas cakes because we can NEVER wait until christmas to devour!

  6. K MonsterID Icon K | Wednesday 12th November 2008 at 5:22 am |

    Mmmm delicious. If it’s not there in the morning, I swear I had nothing to do with it.

    Teal mitts in last post = also delicious, but for a different reason. I am envious of your ahead-of-the-holiday-rush… ness. I am not. I am behind. =D

  7. AmyP MonsterID Icon AmyP | Friday 14th November 2008 at 1:26 am |

    I’m chickening out (again) this year and making a Dundee cake a week or so before! I’ve done full-blown booze-infested fruit cakes in previous years but I just couldn’t be doing with it this year!

  8. heather MonsterID Icon heather | Friday 14th November 2008 at 2:12 am |

    i have to confess i’ve never heard of christmas cake before. sounds almost like the fabled fruit cake? although apparently people like it ;) do you just let it sit until christmas?