Christmas 2010

Pink and Purple Christmas Tree

The theme for Christmas 2010 was pink, purple and silver - hence an aetherial rose-tinted glow from the tree and hence some silver balls on the cake.

Soaking the fruit:
For the cake, I wanted to make a traditional English fruit cake but I used spiced Jamaican rum to soak the fruit in for a couple of months before I was ready to use it.

To help keep the flaked almonds, currants, mixed peel, cherries, raisins, dates, diced prunes, diced apricots and diced apple moist and yummy, I also whacked in some chopped satsumas for sweetness, plenty of Jamaican rum, cinnamon sticks (broken) and plenty of cloves in a small teabag.

Often recipes will call for cooks to use special silky bags for spices, to prevent the hard cloves from getting mixed into the fruit, which can be very costly. To do it cheaply, simply take a teabag, cut the top of it off and put a generous helping of cloves into the bag.

Leave the tea in there however - it also lends a wonderful infusion to the fruit mixture - especially something like Earl Grey or Lady Grey tea.

Decorating:
I used a basic ring-tin for the mixture and, for the icing, traditional icing sugar, egg white and water mix to get those little snowy peaks, and then sprinkling silver balls liberally over the top.

The light is a cheap, plastic tea light - I bought packs of four battery-operated lights, for £1 each, from Poundland. Very cheap, simple and effective - and looks amazing, with or without the light on!

With the light on

Cake with the light off

It's been a long time coming

But I am back in the bloggersphere.

I will be posting my latest creations soon so watch this space!

This will also include all my food, fashion accessories and some pictures of cats. Sometimes this might include all three...

In the meantime, enjoy the slideshow below from my trip to Cuba.