19th of December – A Rose Tinted Advent Calendar

6 days to go! And you may be looking at your pile of presents (to send to Santa, obviously) and be wondering if you have enough. Yes you have! Sit down, put your feet up and read my post here on the 19th of December. Welcome to a Rose Tinted Advent Calendar!

19th of December

The advent bag

In the Advent Bag today are the rest of the figurines for the top of the Christmas Cake.

Where is The Elf?

And today our elf decided to make a mess. I made her clean it up and gave her a written warning. She promises not to be messy again.

What is your favourite Cake?

I love traditional fruit cake… but

• Do you eat it with cheese or not?
• Should you have it hot?
• To marzipan the sides or not?

These are all age old questions bound to divide any dinner table.

My brother hates raisins. Will not eat them. So, each year since we were little we always had a Yule Log or chocolate cake as well as the Christmas cake and Christmas pudding.

When my brother and his wife got married, he obviously wanted a chocolate cake rather than a fruit cake. My Mother and Auntie both baked chocolate cake recipes. Then they did a blind taste test with my brother and his wife to see which would be the wedding cake. This recipe won.

So now it has become a bit of a tradition for this cake to be baked for birthdays and Christmas. I have baked this cake for work and for friends. Every time it is made people comment about how good it is. But it is incredibly rich and chocolatey, so you don’t need much!

A Christmas cake should be a great centrepiece I think. A friend used to fully ice hers, and then use fresh fruit and foliage, including physalis and real holly sprigs. Just remember not to eat them!

I went for all chocolate decorations instead.

Find my Ultimate Chocolate cake recipe here.

Enjoy!

Music of The Day

I wouldn’t offer the chocolate cake to any of these lads. Might get it on their outfits. Here is East 17 and Stay Another Day.

Have a great 19th of December – see you tomorrow for another day of advent.

Enjoyed this? Why not read my other seasonal recipe – Granddad’s Seasoning Pudding?

Or why not read all my advent posts from the beginning?