I Can't Smile Without You // Barry Manilow

That song, is the only song on my cake playlist that does not directly reference any kind of food. It is the only song on my cake playlist that does sum up my relationship with food, especially sweet food.

I have started blogging as I have been told by a few people that I must 'keep my hand in' when it comes to food. I trained for a year with a team of the best pastry chefs in the country, with dreams of starting an amazing career working in the best kitchens in Britain.
This came to a difficult halt a few months ago when I developed a spot of the blues, and went a bit dippy. It took a lot of thought, but in the end it was clear that I had to stop working in the kitchen as I couldn't handle the stress and working very long days wasn't giving me the time to get better.

So I am now on the road to recovery, and have quite a bit of spare time. My current therapy is making eleven christmas cakes over the next few days. Once these are complete I can get down to the details - planning how I will decorate each one. I'm trying not to let myself get too excited about this bit yet, as they need all the time they can get to mature and be fed. But the planning will start soon.

The christmas cake adventure started a week ago, with the realisation that I had no vessel large enough to soak three and a half kilos of fruit. A panic stricken flurry around the house finally came up trumps and I filled up one of those 'really useful boxes'. This turned out to be a fantastic idea as you can clip the lid on and shake it up, and it's kept some of the fruit, that I haven't gotten round to using just yet, fresh and boozy.

The first batch I did - a 10, 8, 6 and 5 inch round - turned out to be way too big and had to be split into more mixing bowls than I was happy with.
I was up until 3 in the morning waiting for that lot to cook.

I suppose this is where I should post a recipe but I find that, of all recipes, the ones for Christmas Cake are the ones where people say: 'I use my great great great grandmothers recipe which has been exclusively used in our family for one hundred and two years.'
This is where I have a shameful admission - the recipe I use has not been lovingly passed down through generations, but is from a very useful website, which gives the amounts, cooking times and final weights for every tin size imaginable.
This is incredibly useful when you're making eleven cakes, and some people want enough for an army, and others want enough for two.
It makes a beautifully rich cake which I have never receieved any complaints about.

Imaginative Icing Site

Under Christmas ideas is an extensive range of evrything you could need for your festivities, as well as the amazing recipe.