A Tale of Two Cakes

I didn't make a Christmas cake this year. There didn't seem a lot of point. Son No 2 doesn't like it and the OH, although he will eat the cake part always leaves his marzipan and icing for me. Even if you eke the cake out over several weeks, that's a lot of sugar for one person. And a lot of hard work for very little payback when you think about it. So I didn't make one. However I couldn't contemplate Christmas without one altogether so when the OH went out the other day to do the last minute shopping I asked him to get a 'small' Christmas cake. Which he did, and very pretty it is too. Tesco's finest!

The December box for the baking subscription, a Winter Spice Cake,  came a few days ago, and I have managed to do that before Christmas. After a fashion. Here's my version - 

This is not quite the version on the recipe photo. In addition to the cake, you were supposed to make a spicy biscuit dough, cut out various Christmas shaped bits, cook them and use the resulting biscuits to decorate the outside and the top of the cake. Well the spirit was willing but the cookie dough was not. It didn't seem to matter how long I left it in the fridge to chill, it just never got dry/robust enough to cut. So I gave up, grated some dark chocolate over the top and decorated it with a sprig of artificial holly. I think it looks very nice. And it will 'do',  in fact more than 'do', as a birthday cake for the OH on 27th of the month.