Christmas Cake.. better late than never !!

Finally got round to posting pics of Christmas Cake.... Having bought Edd Kimber's new book 'Say it with Cake' and been invited to the launch ( thanks Edd) I decide to leave Delia behind this year and try his Christmas Cake recipe, which was his Nana Dawson's ( a bit spooky as I too had a Grandma Dawson, although she never did any cooking, Grandad did it all !!).

Before I show you the stages of the cake... here's the biscuits from the book launch.

Really worth a buy .. some beautiful recipes and photos... and, of course, to get the Christmas Cake recipe !!
I started the cake the last week of  October by soaking the fruit overnight..

Then lined my tin ..

Made up the cake mix and added fruit...

Placed in the tin and smoothed down ..

When baked, I placed in an airtight tin and then feed with Brandy twice a week.....

The week before Christmas I decorated, starting with a glaze of apricot jam to make the marzipan stick...

Rolled out the marzipan and carefully placed over and smoothed out and cut around the bottom ...

I left this overnight to dry out a little and then did the same process with the icing .....

The following evening I cut out icing stars to decorate and left overnight to harden ...

I piled the stars onto the cake and put a ribbon round to finish ....

I made one for home and one for the 'White Christmas' company to have between shows on Christmas Eve  .....

It went down very well and didn't last long ... even Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval) had a piece !!

I'll definitely make this version again.. Sorry Delia, you've been demoted !!!

A very belated Merry Christmas !! xx