when you've finished those you've got all these to do as well.

Good morning.

Today, we're making Lord and Lady Braybrooke's Christmas cake.

I'm using one of my favourite plum cake recipes.

It's got a lot of dried cherries in it.

For this recipe you will need

flour

butter

fine sugar

dried cherries, chopped

currants

candied peel

ground almonds

zest of oranges

eggs

spices

and brandy

Now

that I've softened the butter

I'm going to add the flour

the sugar and the eggs gradually.

Sugar please.

Flour.

And the eggs.

Thank you.

Now that's really well blended together,

it's time to add the dried fruit.

Candied peel.

Thank you.

The currants.

And now my favourite bit,

the dried cherries.

Thank you.

It's time for the brandy.

And the spice.

And the zest of oranges.

And the last thing to go in are the ground almonds.

Now that the mix is done,

it's time to prepare the tin.

I've already lined the tin with butter

and now I'm going to line it with brown paper.

For the edges, I'm using double thickness of paper.

I've cut tabs at the bottom

to make it sit in the tin more evenly.

Not forgetting the lining of the bottom.

I'm going to add bands around the outside.

Now it's ready for the mix.

And there,

And there, now it's ready for the oven.

A low oven,

for about roughly six hours.

Now that the cake is out of the oven

and thoroughly cool.

I've made a band of marzipan

put it around the top of the cake

and turned it upside down.

This gives a nice flat surface

to start your decoration.

I've made my marzipan with twice the amount

of icing sugar as ground almonds.

And then added eggs white

until the mixture is a dough-like texture.

I've rolled it out fairly thin

and I'm actually going to put the marzipan on in two stages.

This one is for the top.

I will cut off

to give a sharp edge

and then have some more around the outside.

I added a band of marzipan around the outside,

let it dry

and then added a layer of royal icing.

One layer for the top letting it dry

and then one for the outside.

My royal icing was made out

icing sugar, egg whites and lemon juice.

I'm not too worried

about the air bubbles on the top

after all for Lord and Lady Braybrooke

I am a cook not a confectioner.

And anyway,

I can disguise it with some of my decoration.

There,

to add a bit of festive color

I've added a piece of red ribbon.

For fashion for a Christmas cake

is to have a lovely Christmas

message written on the top.

May Christmas Joys fill your heart today.

But there,

Merry Christmas