The joy of a homemade Christmas cake

When I went to open the miniature bottle of brandy we were told to bring in to flavour our cake, half its contents were gone. My petitions to the teacher that I was not the culprit, but the victim of cruel larceny, fell on deaf ears. Secondly, the brown paper tied round the cake tin, to keep it from burning, burnt. Thirdly, it tasted horrible.

The experience, however, did not put me off and I still love Christmas cake, with its thick cloak of icing, a layer of smooth marzipan and dense fruit cake within.

But do people still bake Christmas cakes or is it just not worth the effort? Many of us will remember our mothers and grandmothers starting the Christmas cake baking malarkey in April or May, so that it would have time to mature.

It was a magical time, the air scented with mixed peel and cinnamon, my mother following a thumb-marked recipe cut from a newspaper .A big bowl contained flour, super shiny red and green glace cherries like jewels, the raisins, sultanas, raisins, chopped nuts and mixed spice. After cooking and cooling, the cake was boulder-heavy, but the taste was pure Christmas.