Pre-Christmas preparations

 Christmas cake bucket mix for 3 cakes - dried figs, NZ dried apricots, prunes, almonds, hazel nuts dried blueberries and cranberries, lemon zest and orange juice and plenty of brandy.

Christmas cake recipe (based on a Mediterranean Christmas Cake recipe I cut out of a magazine years ago - quantities for 1 cake)
1 1/2 C each dried figs, dried prunes, dried apricots
1/2 C dried blueberries
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/2 C each blanched almonds and hazelnuts
zest and juice of 1 lemon and orange
brandy
2 C high grade flour
1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and cardamon
200 g butter
1 1/4C soft brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
4 eggs

For 3 cakes I tripled the dried fruit and nuts (chopped roughly) and juice in a food grade bucket and marinated 24-48 h.  I cooked the three cakes separately adding a third of the fruit and nut mix each time.
Grease a square cake tin and line the bottom and sides with baking paper.
Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees C.
Sift the flower and spices into a bowl.
Cream the butter, sugar and golden syrup.
Gradually add the eggs and a little flour if needed.
Fold in the fruit mix and put in the tin.
Bake 2-2 1/2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool and turn out on a rack.
I have to say that for our cake I tipped some extra brandy on the top of the cake as it came out of the oven... happy Christmas.

We bought the Christmas tree after swimming this morning and put it up.  Hopefully it will last through to Christmas...  Tomorrow we're off to see the Cinderella Christmas panto.