I’ve always enjoyed a proper Christmas cake. I prefer a rich fruit cake to sponge or any other filling, and I particularly love marzipan and icing. I am so glad that many friends and relations do not share my preference in this case, so in the past, the cake has usually lasted all through January.

This year, in the sad absence of my Christmas cake makers, I have decided to make it myself. However, I always cut all possible corners in cooking, and I remember that the most time-consuming process was the stirring and mixing of the ingredients of the cake itself. Now recently, I’ve been buying “Irish Whisky Cakes” from Aldi, and it occurred to me that here was a corner that could be cut!

Now there are two households that I hope to spend time with over Christmas, so I bought two Irish Whisky Cakes, marzipan, icing, apricot jam to stick the icing to the marzipan, and a little vodka in a very old bottle to stick the marzipan to the cake.

First, I opened the cake and removed the wrapping paper.

Then I kneaded the marzipan so that it became pliable enough then rolled it flat and thin. I had to use an empty wine bottle for this because, to my surprise, I couldn’t find a rolling pin in Fran’s cake-making cupboard.

Next, I used a brush from Fran’s collection of cooking tools to coat the top and sides of the cake with vodka.

I could have done with a bit more marzipan because when I applied it to each case and pressed it down all around, I found I couldn’t cover all of each cake because if I squeezed it down too thinly, It started to crack. So, on to the next stage. I had put the apricot jam jar in a pan of hot water at the start and had been stirring it every now and then.

I had previously kneaded and rolled out icing, so after I had liberally coated the marzipan with warm apricot jam, I spread the icing over the cake.

I met with the same problem – not enough icing to completely cover both cakes. Hey ho, I spread it as well as I could, added a dwarf to one cake and coloured bits to the other and called it done.

I can’t see how this cannot be pronounced a success – marzipan is marzipan, icing is icing, and I’ve already thoroughly tested the Irish Whisky Cake. Next year, I’ll buy more marzipan and icing. I’ve no problem with that.

Merry Christmas!