Christmas Cake!

Lloyd and I are having Christmas here this year. So we decided to actually make our christmas cake, and do it together.   A few weeks ago we were watching Anna Olson on tv and thought her cake looked pretty delicious. Today we headed into Kerikeri to get all the fruity ingredients. Now, having bought everything, I would never suggest that this is a cheap way of getting a Christmas cake! But we're hoping it will be the best Christmas cake ever!

Recipe

Ingredients

For the fruit:

• 1 cup diced candied orange peel
• 1 cup sultanas
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup chopped pitted prunes
• 1 cup chopped candied pineapple
• ½ cup dried currants
• ½ cup dried cherries
• ¼ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 cup sweet sherry or brandy
• ½ cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp finely grated orange zest
• 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
• 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger

This is the stage we have reached for today...

(We couldn't get dried cherries so we used glace cherries - we both love them, anyway! And we also added some dates because they were just being delivered and the lady let us taste them and they were amazing!)

Candied peel and sultanas

 Dried cranberries

Glace cherries, and prunes added

 Pineapple, currants, ginger and zest...

Sherry and orange juice

A good old moosh around ( Lloyd did this bit by hand)  then I covered it and it was put in the fridge - this recipe says overnight, or up to three days. Stirring occasionally. I think we'll only do it until tomorrow afternoon. This way we can finish it together too.

We're waiting with baited breath now..... stay tuned!