Christmas is coming

Sorry - I used the 'C' word. Christmas is looming over me, and yesterday darling father brought home a Christmas cake.

It was a home made one, made by a church member, and it looks full of fruit and very tasty. I really appreciate darling father bringing it home as he probably was forced to pay £6.50 (a really bargain - it's a decent sized cake!) at gunpoint to 'show willing'.

However, while all of us will eat Christmas cake, none of us are really that bothered, and we had decided not to bother with a Christmas cake this year. And it is un-iced. I will be icing and decorating it. I have never successfully iced a cake yet. I know the theory, apricot jam, marzipan, icing, decorations. It all sounds very straight forward. I am not sure that it is actually quite so straight forward though, and I am going to be braced. It is going to be ready roll icing (I am a coward) and I have no shame in patching and poking and if necessary I will stick a plastic holly leaf over a hole.

Actually, although I am being very pessimistic about it, I think it will be quite fun. There is a stall on Leeds market that does all the cake decorations etc, really lovely stuff, and all the glace citron and ginger that you can't easily find in the shops, lovely and fresh. They do the huge sultanas and scraps of crystallised ginger that we all love to snack on, and you can get loose herbs, spices and nuts there as well. I shall take little bear in and we shall choose decorations together, and then we can decorate the cake together. I am really looking forward to that!