Christmas Cake

There is something indescribably pleasant about the ritual of making the Christmas Cake.

I sourced some beautiful organic ingredients this year. The dried fruit soaked in Brandy overnight, and it was all plump and glistening with booze this morning. Spices and candied peel, rich black treacle, roughly chopped almonds, soft dark sugar… it all smells and feels so wonderful! Even the cake-tin lined with brown baking parchment and neatly tied up with string makes me feel that I am repeating a rhythm that I have seen my mother and my grandmothers play out my whole life. I am part of the tradition myself now and it means the world to me to be part of it.