Christmas update

I know, I'm miles behind the times, but I have an excuse! Anyway, this is a quick post mostly for myself to remind me about Christmas cake next year :) In 2010 I made a Christmas cake from Delia's recipe (see blog post here). I fed it and petted it and the day my mum turned up, we cut it (16th Dec). The three of us managed to eat it over almost exactly a month (S ate the last bit on 17th Jan). It was very nice - more boozy and a bit more crumbly than Mum's melt & mix fruit cake recipe (my usual). I would definately eat it again, and it was pretty easy to make - but not the pinnacle of Christmas cakes for me.

Christmas cheer

The sloe gin is bottled. The gift bags have been made. The shortbread has been baked (and eaten!), and tomorrow I think we'll cut the Christmas cake. What a most excellent time of year.

I bulk bought the bags for the wedding - treat bags for our very little guests - and had some left over, so a wee scrap of ribbon and hand printed labels (not by me!) made them a bit more festive. I really love how they came out. The ribbon and labels are from Flash in the Pan - a pop-up shop in Summertown at the moment. Very much worth checking out - lovely lovely stuff in there!
The sloe gin is not destined for gift bags - it is destined for a years eeking out, its such lovely stuff. It is quite a light colour this year, I think my sloe-piercing was less than thorough. But it still tastes divine.