Christmas cake

I made the Christmas cake today. Now, I like traditions, and every year over the past 20 years I've made almost the same type of cake. Thi syear I decided on a change, and dug out a very old cookbook I have. It belonged to my paternal grandmother, possibly her mother before her. They lived in Cornwall, and this is "the first printed Cornish Recipe Book" according to the preface of the first edition; it's a book compiled in 1929 with contributions from Cornish WIs.. Sadly, it is minus a cover, but I aim to get one made for it to keep it in good condition to pass on eventually. There are some fascinating recipes for it, some written in dialect, covering teh normal range of cakes, meat dishes, etc, plus pasties, remedies, wine and HUGE cakes - take 5lbs of butter, 5lbs flour............. There are recipes for good old Cornish dishes in it - pasties, heavy cake, Cornish splits, saffron cake, etc. I was lucky to be given free choice of my aunt's cookery books when she died, and this was one of them.

I'd love to think my grandmother, and possibly my great grandmother, used this recipe for their Christmas cake - there are a couple of the stains on the pages, so it could well be.
Teh cakes are in the oven now - I have a large one and a smaller one; we'll try the smaller one out over teh weekend. If it's not Christmassy enough, I can make something else in plenty of time. :)

I love this time of year..........