I ❤️ Christmas Cake

Today I made my Christmas cake, and yes I did lick the bowl. Raw eggs? Oops.

As I was making the cake it occurred to me that one of the things I like about cooking is that it can get really messy! It wouldn’t be nearly so fun if it wasn’t.

I dropped sultanas on the floor, spread dark brown sugar all over the work surfaces and the bottom of one of my socks, flour went everywhere including probably my hair. By the time I’d finished it there was MESS, dirty cutlery and bowls everywhere and the kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it. Love it! Don’t worry I did clean up afterwards and all is shipshape again now.

The whole house smelt of warm Christmas cake earlier…. 😋 yum!

I still need to take it out of the tin/paper, inhale deeply a few more times, and wrap it in foil inside a cake tin. I will then feed it with brandy and/or rum a few times over the coming weeks.

I have made my own marzipan in the past and found that surprisingly easy but for this year I’ve bought it. You affix the rolled out marzipan to the cake with warm apricot jam which I have already stocked up with, although the icing won’t take place until 23/24 December. After about 15 years of trying, unsuccessfully, to make the perfect royal icing, I have admitted defeat as of last year and now use this ready made royal icing from Tesco’s, which works very well. (I don’t know why, I tried various recipes, but my royal icing always seemed a bit too runny and pooled a bit at the bottom on the cake and I had to keep scooping it up to the top again…).

Anyway, as I’m all for a stress free Christmas, this’ll do just fine.

Going to Tesco’s was a bit of a shock as I hadn’t been in a proper supermarket for months. I felt a bit out of touch with the new Covid rules. Going around the aisles it seems everyone goes really close to each other in all different directions, but then at the tills a bossy lady tells you to step back if you are within 2 metres of the person ahead. I left feeling very relieved I do most of my shopping online. And that was after the disastrous set back when I’d walked almost all the way to Tesco’s only to find I had no mask in my pocket (arrrrggghhh!). I thought about nipping into the chemist to buy one but then realised you can’t go in the chemist’s without a mask either so durrrr! Had to go back home in a strop and return to said Tesco’s.

Apart from the mask/Tesco saga, it’s been a thoroughly nice day. Lie in, tea in bed by David (quite a rare event), time for leisurely porridge breakfast, coffee break, cake baking, walk around the block dodging the showers, catching up by phone and text with a couple of friends and generally relaxing. On tonight’s menu is Thai green prawn noodles from the Good Housekeeping Express cookbook.

Have you started any Christmas prep yourself? What about Christmas baking, do you do any? Apologies to my sister who doesn’t like mention of the C word before her birthday in November. Shhhhhh!! It’s not even Halloween yet. I do apologise…