Mmm cake.....

Now you may or may not know that I love to cook. I'm not saying that I'm a pro or anything, but I think I do pretty well and I really enjoy it. Something I don't do a lot of though is baking, however it's got to that time of year ...*drum roll please*.....Christmas cake and Christmas pudding time!

There are two reasons that they have to be done now: Firstly, the Christmas pudding needs a bit of time to mature and the Christmas cake needs time to be fed plenty of booze (very important)! Secondly, building work begins on our house in a few days time and we won't have a kitchen (eek!)

So I thought I'd share some photos with you. The cake recipe was given to my mum by a friend (I think it was her family recipe) and we've used it ever since I was little. I'm a sucker for technology and having all my recipes on my iPad but there is something special about getting out that hand written recipe with all the marks on it from when we had to check each ingredient off when I was young.

The start of the process (above) and the end product (below). It has cracked a little but I'm hoping these might reduce in size as it cools (this photo was taken when it just came out of the oven)

I made Christmas pudding for the first time last year but it turned out SO well that I plan to make it one of my traditions and make one every year. The recipe I used was this great one by Delia Smith . This year I have made a few alterations regarding the type of fruit I've added though the recipe is amazing just as it is and is really simple to do.

It's currently resting overnight and I'll pack it in a bowl and steam it for 6 hours tomorrow. Then I'll just keep it in a cool place until it's time to steam it again on Christmas day.

Do you make Christmas cakes and/or puddings? Please feel free to comment and share some of your favourite combinations and traditions :)