Christmas cake.

I know, i know, i really shouldn't be uttering the 'C' word already but stay with me (although i warn you now that i love Christmas so as soon as it's possible to do so without people throwing things at me i will be getting very excited about it and will no doubt be rabbiting on about it here. You have been warned).

As you may or may not know in order to have a super tasty yum Christmas cake when the festive season arrives you have to put in the ground work and think ahead.

It's around now that you have to start thinking about getting the cake baked. You then have to nurture it and feed it sherry (or another alcohol of your choice) until it's time to dress it in marzipan and icing and make it look fancy.

With that i mind i plan to bake mine in the next couple of weeks. I made a Christmas cake for the first time last year and these are the pictures of the end result. I was really pleased with it, and although this year i will be using a different recipe (last years cake was a Nigella recipe, which was nice, but the ones we made at work were a lot better so i've pinched that recipe for this year) i will be putting the same love and care into it.

I'd never worked with marzipan or fondant icing and both were easier than i expected. Although you can see the yellow of the marzipan poking out a little from the bottom of the cake, naughty marzipan.

I kept it simple with the decoration last year, so this year i want it to be brighter and even more Christmassy!

I will let you know how i get on. And i promise no more Christmas talk for at least another two months. Apart from the cake talk that is. And who doesn't like cake talk?

(did you spot the gingerbread house in the last photo.......... more about that nearer the time...).