It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Now this is a bit of a "ta-da" moment for me as I have never made a fruit cake before! When I saw the recipe for a "Victorian Christmas Cake" in Mary Berry's Baking Bible, I knew I had to give it a go. Although Christmas isn't Christmas without a dark, fruit cake, I much prefer a lighter cake like this one. 

I enjoyed making a pattern on top of the cake.

I did not enjoy the amount of time it took to chop, clean, drain, dry the fruit and nuts. Cherries are very sticky.

If you're thinking "why does the cake look slightly pink?" it's because I glazed it with strawberry jam. Ideally I would have liked apricot jam but we didn't have any in the house. I'm sure strawberry will taste fine.

We also put up our tree at the weekend! Usually we buy a 5ft-6ft tree but Mum fell in love with a 7ft tree this year which only just fits in the living room. It is a beauty though.

I've been solely in charge of decorating the tree for the past few years now which is great. I like the mixture of decorations we have on our tree: some old, some new, wooden shop bought ones and handmade pieces from family.

I made the circular decoration at the top of this photo. It's an old curtain ring wrapped with crepe paper and christmassy twirly ribbons, a cheap but cute decoration. I have another Christmassy post coming up this week with more crafty decorations along with my fudge post. Mmmm fudge.