Christmas Cake

I decided this year that I was going to make a christmas pud and a christmas cake. After reading the recipe for christmas pud and marrying up the utter faff of cooking it with the fact that no-one ever eats the damn thing except under sufferance, I decided to stick to baking the christmas cake. After all, that can be eaten on regular intervals all through the festive season and can be offered to any visitors that come a-wassailing when you're least expecting them.

When in doubt, stick to Delia - her classic christmas cake recipe has several things going for it, not least that it doesn't have lots of nonsense fruit in it that I'd struggle to find oop north, and it lets you have a free hand with the brandy.

Anyway, I'm posting this while waiting for it to cool sufficiently to be double wrapped in baking parchment and stuck in an air tight container. Apparently, I have to "feed it" brandy on regular intervals until I stick the marzipan and icing on. \o/

Oh, and I'm listening to Chelsea beat Aston Villa in the league cup. 2-0 to the mighty chels at time of posting - Martin O'Neill stick that up your jacksy :-)