Sweetness and light: the final course in our festive special
There’s a cake in the oven. Not the traditional raisin and nut-laden Christmas cake (which is already wrapped, somewhat untidily in almond paste, like a baby in a blanket) but a second, plainer one, for those unmoved by the idea of a rich fruit cake. I have baked this second cake in a hollow Gugelhupf tin that makes anything you put in it resemble a Christmas wreath.
I could have used a plain, round cake tin, but I rather enjoy preparing special cake tins for such occasions. There is something relaxing about painstakingly brushing the inside with butter and dusting it with flour from a sieve, shaking off any excess, then filling the tin – in this case – with chocolate-freckled cake batter.