"It’s been a long time since I came around It’s been along time but I’m back in town"

Thought these Lady Gaga lyrics were very apt! sorry i've been gone so long, been so busy working that i've barely been on the computer at all! One thing i have done though is made a Christmas cake! now normally i don't really like Christmas but this year i'm super excited for it as it means i get to see all my friends from uni as they'll all be home. To get into the festive spirit i decided to make a Christmas cake, i used the same recipe last year and my grandparents loved it, so i thought i'd do it again. I know that making a cake now is a bit in advance but it tastes so much better if you make it just over a month in advance as the flavours developed! You can adapt the recipe for what you like/don't like but try and keep it as close to the recipe as possible for the best results!

Ingredients for 20 cm round or 18cm square cake:

150g self-raising flour

150g plain flour

225g butter

225g dark soft brown sugar

4eggs

1 orange, grated rind and juice

50g flaked almonds

50g glace cherries 

550g dried mixed fruit

1 eating apple grated

1tsp mixed spice

1tsp cinnamon

2tbsp apple juice

1. firstly double line your cake tin with baking parchment.

2. then put the sugar and butter in a bowl and cream together until lightened in colour and creamy in texture

 3. add the eggs to the mixture along with half the flour. beat well.

4. place the cherries, spices and dried fruit in the remaining flour and stir through until all the fruit is coated and add the fruit to the rest of the mixture. this will stop the fruit from sinking to the bottom during cooking so the fruit will be even through the cake.

5. then add the almonds, grated apple and orange zest and mix together.

6. finally add the apple and orange juice and mix well.

7. spoon into the cake tin and smooth over.

8. bake in a cool oven, 120 degrees C, gas mark 1 for 2 hours then reduce the temperature to 100 degrees C gas mark 1/2 for a further hour (such a long time cooking, i read about a million magazines whilst it was cooking)

8. turn off the oven and leave the cake to cool. place in an airtight container.

i'll be decorating mine at the start of December and will show you what i do! enjoy, hope some of you decide to make one!

xxxcxxx

"Yellow diamonds in the light"

Gosh almost a week since i lasted posted! Been a bit to busy to post, went up to Birmingham on Friday to see a friend at Uni! I had a really great time, Birmingham is an amazing city, i really liked it there. Went shopping in the Bull ring and spent a fair few hours in Forever 21 alone where i bought this bad boy:

It was great seeing a new city, and will try and visit all my friends at some point and will be checking out all the shopping facilities and let you know which ones are best! Sorry for such a short post but i'm horrendously ill right now and in no mood to do anything other than watch daytime TV.

xxxcxxx