Sunshine and strawberries..........

It's a coolish late spring day here, with the sun shining and a lovely light breeze blowing.

The Christmas cake is baking in the oven, the washing is on the line and I have just harvested nearly a kilo of strawberries.

Life is good.

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...

I made the most of a morning at home to bake this year's Christmas cake this morning. The house soon became rendolent with the scintillating smell of spices and soaked fruit...............mmmmmmmmmmmmm! The fruit has been soaking in the pantry for the last two months, so has become rich and succulent.

I use the 3 in 1 mix from one of the Women's Weekly cookbooks. It is enough for a good sized cake, a lovely bolied pudding and a heap of mince pies- I've been using it for more than 20 years and every year have people ask what my secret is! I use port or muscat as the liquor to soak the fruit in, as I find it gives a real richness to the final product.

I have Frday put aside for making the pudding and I think this year I will use the remaining mix to make some individual Christmas cakes to go in the hampers I'm making.