And the recipe for Thangam's tradition busting Christmas Cake

So, having read the previous blog of reasons to make a carry on on Stir Up Sunday (it was last Sunday but don't worry, it's not too late) here is the recipe for the cake. Gather ye dried fruit and nuts and spices and a loose-bottomed 12 inch cake tin and a little one for you to have your own extra cake.

Ingredients

200g butter - take it out an hour before cooking, so it isn't fridge hard.

150g dark muscovado sugar - yes, nothing else will do. It's worth it.

2 tablespoon black treacle - no, golden syrup isn't the same, it's not that sort of cake.

4 eggs, beaten, or kettled. Did I say big respect to the students?

100ml or so of brandy or sherry.

650g dried fruit - I use raisins (not a single sultana will be passing my mother's lips this Christmas, as per instructions), cranberries (dried and sweetened), cherries (the dark sort, not the red ones) and candied peel. But you can add currants and sultanas if you like that sort of thing. Soak everything, except the candied peel, in the brandy/sherry overnight if you can.

120g nuts - I used almonds and hazelnuts. But you can leave them out if you have a nut allergy to cope with.

Finely grated zest of lemon or orange (but never a lime). Now is a good time to get yourself a zester, what a tool.

2tsp mixed spice - I used traditional cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

Seeds scraped out of half a fresh vanilla pod if you have one.

200g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder.

Method:

Cream butter and sugar thoroughly. Beat in treacle, then eggs, a bit at a time, alternately with the flour.  The mixture should be ploppy, not liquid.  

Add in the fruit/alcohol mixture. Add the nuts. Stir it all well, adding the baking powder.

You should have greased and lined your tin with baking parchment - this is really important. And you should have heated up your oven to 160c or 140c if you have a fan oven, or gas 3.

Ease the cake mixture carefully, just half at first, into the cake tin. Now for a mixing up of traditions - Simnel cake, the traditional cake for Easter, is a fruit cake with a layer of marzipan in the middle. What could be nicer? Roll out some ready made marzipan into a circle which is slightly smaller than the cake tin, place carefully on the cake mixture and add the rest of the cake mixture making sure it covers the marzipan at the edges.

Cook for 30 minutes, then turn down the oven to 150c or 130c if you have a fan oven, or gas 2. Cook for at least 2 hours, perhaps slightly more until a skewer comes out clean except for a bit of marzipan (taste to check!).

Leave it to cool in the tin. Once cool, take out of tin and baking parchment. Turn it upside down, skewer its bottom and splash on the first drink of extra alcohol. It will quickly soak up. Now wrap the whole thing in foil and put in a tin or somewhere else which is safe from rodents or you.

It will keep for months, particularly if no-one else in your family likes fruit cake.