It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...

The cake has been in the oven for just over an hour, and I'm getting delicious spicy-Christmas-cakey wafts...

[The only upside I've so far found to having no door between the living room and the kitchen!]

Owing to last year's boo-boo in forgetting to take the recipe with me when I went shopping for a tin, I am once again making 25% more cake than is called for.  David doesn't mind at all, but it does make for a lot more mixing.  The non-maths part of my brain said a tin that's one inch bigger wouldn't need that much more in terms of ingredients...

But the left brain said let's work it out; so glad I did as we now don't get a flat cake!

OK, we've got one that comes nearly to the top of the cake-tin, but it looks alright.

And if it's half as good as last year, it will taste way better than alright!

If anyone is interested, I follow the recipe for Kirstie's Quick Christmas Cake, as seen on TV the last couple of years. She said it can even be made on Christmas Eve, which spurred me on to make one the year before last as is wasn't even that late when I started.

[Allsop, in case that needs stating!]

Last year I made is a bit earlier in December, and follow the directions she gave on television to cook it the following day if you run out of time.  It absorbs a fair bit of liquid (I use wholemeal flour, which probably doesn't help), so I added more liquid this morning, and a bit more before putting it in the oven when I'd got back from my yoga class.

Needless to say, I vary the ingredients - but mainly by adding more spices [cinnamon, ginger, vanilla extract, and more of the nutmeg and mixed spice], but that's a personal-taste-thing and no reflection on the recipe.  It's time consuming, but once the five-plus hours of making it are forgotten there's a lot more enjoying it still to come!

Oh, and I use Calvados rather than apple brandy, but you'd probably worked that out for yourself, hadn't you?

If I forget before then: Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Ingredients; all good to go!

Boil dried fruit in dry cider - yum!

Nuts...

...chopped

Cream butter and sugar together

Wand blender is great, but doesn't cream enough...

... my big-handled spoon made it much easier

Add grated orange & lemon rind, and molasses

Stir in eggs, flour spice, boiled fruit & chopped nuts

Double-lined tin, wrapped in brown paper; into the oven