Is this it? Is *this* the year you vow to make your own Christmas cake?
This is about the tenth year in a row that I've vowed to make a Christmas cake and I've never actually managed to follow through on that threat promise.
Somehow every year I start of musing in October that this will indeed be the year I make a Christmas cake, and then suddenly I blink and instead of having weeks and weeks left in which to painstakingly and lovingly 'feed' my Christmas cake (yes, it's a thing...) it is in fact merely days before Christmas and I've left it too late to make a Christmas cake again.
Not this year, though. This year will be different. This WILL be the year I make a home-made Christmas cake. And since you've still got a little over nine weeks left until the big day, you've got loads of time to join me in making a home-made Christmas cake.
So, to help you plan your perfect home-made Christmas cake baking extravaganza, here's a quick round-up of some of our favourite Christmas cake recipes...
First up, this adorable Snowman Christmas Cake is perfect for making with the kids.
This BBC Good Food Simmer & Stir Christmas Cake requires no beating and is thus apparently an easy alternative to a traditional Christmas cake.
Or how about Jamie Oliver's gluten-free Christmas cake recipe? He reckons it's every bit as tasty as the 'real' thing.
Once you've made your cake, this cute and cheery sugarpaste Santa Christmas cake design will surely tempt even hardened haters of Christmas cake into trying a slice. Just, you know, slice with care.
Um, did someone mention a Nutella Christmas cake? Ok, this isn't going to appeal to the traditionalists among you and, yes, it's really just a basic Swiss Roll filled with Nutella. But c'mon, we had you at Nutella Christmas cake, am I right?
Of course, no Christmas cake recipe line-up would be complete without a Mary Berry Christmas cake recipe. Apparently Mary has been baking her Christmas cake to this exact recipe since 1966, and she advises making it at least three to four weeks before you plan to eat it. Loads of time left, then!
Of course, Delia Smith's classic Christmas cake looks like a winner, too, if considerably more fiddly.
The one and only Nigella Lawson calls this her Easy Action Christmas Cake and reckons "culinary self esteem – and Christmas spirit" have never come at "so low an emotional cost". Sounds like even I could make this one.
And finally, here's Jane Asher's last minute Christmas cake for those of you who, like me, will no doubt end up leaving it till the last minute after all.
Oh, and don't forget to check out our guide to how to ice a Christmas cake.
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