Ah Christmas. To different people the end of the year mean different things but to most it usually involves rushing shopping which we in inevitably always end up doing at the last minute regardless of our best intentions to get it done early. For me, the time leading up to Christmas is equally hectic but for different reasons. For the past few years, I have been baking fruit cakes and giving them away to friends just in time for the holidays and this year is no exception.

The fruit cake recipe I use was passed down to me from my mom who learned it from a pastry chef a long time ago. It is very rich, using a hefty amount of egg yolks and butter but is not too sweet as it uses brown sugar which is excellent for taste and not as sweet as normal refined sugar.

The cake is actually quite easy to make. It is the preparation that take a fair bit of time, starting about a week before actual baking where the fruits, nuts and brandy is mixed and left to soak and marinade; mixing them around every day to make sure the mixture is even. On the actual day of baking, the mixing is really straightforward with the only difficult part being keeping an eye on it bake.

As this recipe only uses the yolks from the eggs, there will a large surplus of egg whites. Mom suggests saving them to make egg white cakes (I must remember to grab that recipe from her).