Glacé fruit topped Christmas cake.

Last month I blogged about baking Mary Berry's Victorian Christmas Cake.
Click here if you missed that post or would like the recipe.
Since then I have given the cake a little tot of whisky about every 10 days or so to keep it moist.
When it came time to decorate the cake I first warmed through 2 tablespoons of apricot conserves with 1 tablespoon of Calvados apple brandy.
(What can I say? It's a boozy cake!)

Abricots, poires, clementines, prunes, figues, tranches de citrons, tranches d'oranges and bigarreaux.
Apricots, pears, clementines, figs, slices of lemons and oranges and cherries.

I brushed the cake quite liberally with the conserves and then artfully (!) arranged some glace fruit and pecan nuts before brushing once again with the remainder of the conserves until all was beautifully glossy.

I purchased the fruits glacés from Les Fleurons d'Apt a wonderful online emporium full of Provencal foodie treats.

This will be the last post of 2011, whew! hasn't this year just flown by?

Like many of you, I'll be taking a short break away from blogging until the New Year.

Until then dear friends and followers may I take the opportunity of wishing you all 

A Very Merry Christmas

and

 A Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2012.

Mary Berry's Victorian Christmas Cake

Did you know that there are only 46 days to Christmas?
Yikes!
Have you made your Christmas cake yet?
Now, I know that lots of people hate fruit cake but the Senior Partner and I cannot be counted amongst them.
We do both loathe, despise and abominate marzipane the traditional layer between the fruit cake and the Royal icing topping.
We're not mad about Royal icing and all the fiddly little Christmas decorations either.
I usually bake Delia's Christmas cake, a tried and tested recipe which never fails, however in the November issue of Good Food magazine I came across Mary Berry's Classic Victorian Christmas cake and decided to bake it this year instead.
Click here for the link to the recipe on the BBC Good Food website.
I tweaked the recipe only slightly by replacing sherry with whisky, and it's whisky I'll "feed" the cake with every two weeks until decorating the top with jeweled coloured glace fruits and seasonal nuts, and I might well decide to enhance it further with a beautiful shimmering ribbon.
I'll probably post a photo or two of the finished cake, all glossy and pouting in it's rich deliciousness, a little nearer Christmas, for now though all I can show you is the cake before it went into the oven and all the messy detritus left for me to clear away whilst it bakes for 5 hours and 10 minutes!

Sharing this post with Claudia @ Mocking Bird Hill Cottage

for Reality Shot Thursday #7

a fun gathering where we reveal how we really live

away from the bright lights and cameras!
I've had a request from Bunny Jean asking
 that I link this recipe to her Wednesday Bunny Hop.
No sooner said than done!