Baking the Christmas cake

We don't always make a Christmas cake, in fact, I'm not sure when the last time was.   This year, however, with my new found enthusiasm and time for baking, N asked for a traditional rich fruit cake so that is what we did today. 

I found my old recipe book and turned to the well-thumbed page to find a list of ingredients and method, but no indication at all of temperature or length of time in the oven.  Very helpful!  A quick bit of research on the internet and we were good to go.

The fruit was washed yesterday and left to soak up a couple of tablespoons of brandy overnight.

This morning I mixed the ingredients together . . .

. . . brown sugar and real butter (that felt a bit decadent!) . . .

. . . someone was keen to help with the mixing ;-) . . .

. . . the mixture was for a 8 1/2" tin and we only had a 7" one, so we ended up with a 'spare' (I don't think that will last until Christmas!)

One empty mixing bowl . . .

                                . . .  and one very yummy-looking cake!

The 'extra' cake has already been tasted as part of a rigorous quality-control exercise and I am pleased to report that it is rather good - and very buttery.  

The real one will be wrapped and stored until nearer Christmas when it will be marzipaned and iced.  It will probably be given a drink or two of something alcoholic to help it on its way.  

NTS - no nuts of any sort in this mixture; a well-travelled lime instead of lemon; perhaps a bit too heavy-handed with the extra brandy (!); gas mark 1-2; left in oven for about 5 hours.