Juliet's Mum's Christmas Cake

Do you remember the cake from the Novelistas' Christmas party? Juliet Greenwood made it, using one of her mother's recipes. It was absolutely delicious! So, if you'd like to have a go at making it yourself, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

8oz/227g  butter/margarine

8oz/227g  sugar

8oz/227g  self raising flour

3 eggs

1 small tin of pineapple (chopped)

2oz/57g  glace cherries

2oz/57g  candied peel

1 orange

1 lemon

1 grated eating apple

2oz/57g  sultanas

2oz/57g  currants

2oz/57g  walnuts

4oz/113g  toasted almonds.

1 teaspoon of mixed spice

Method

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs gradually. Beat well. Add fruit and nuts and rind of orange and lemon. Fold in the flour and mixed spice.

 

Place in greased cake tin (7inches/18cm) and bake for 1 hour at 180 (160 for fan-assisted) or gas mark 4. Turn out onto a plate to cool. While still warm make holes in the cake with a knife and feed in a little of the orange and lemon juice, and either some of the pineapple juice or a tipple of your choice (brandy or sherry work nicely). When cool, ice with butter icing flavoured with a little lemon and decorate with cherries and toasted almonds.

 

Can be made the night before Christmas, and the fruit and nuts can be adjusted. Just put in what you like best! Simple and delicious – enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Scones with Mr Darcy by Annie Burrows

Novelista Annie Burrows writes historical romance for Harlequin Mills & Boon.  This month, pretending it was research, she went on the hunt for Mr Darcy...

This year is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice".  As part of the celebrations, a huge statue of Colin Firth is on tour throughout the UK, at locations where various parts of the 1995 BBC series were filmed.

I'm lucky enough to live close to Lyme Park, which stood in for Pemberley, Mr Darcy's home. 

  

And yes, that is where he dived into the lake, got his shirt soaked, and won Lizzy Bennet's heart (according to the Andrew Davies adaptation!)  And it is at Lyme Park where the 12ft fibreglass statue will make its permanent home.

First off, my chauffeur and I went to the tea rooms.  The scones were enormous, fluffy on the inside, and crispy on the outside.  While the chauffeur was warming his hand on a mug of tea, I went off to try on some Regency gowns, which I'd noticed that visitors could try on.   

I had great fun dressing up as a Regency lady, and imagining myself the owner of a stately home.

On the day I went to Pemberley (ok, Lyme Park, but I was starting to get into the spirit of things by the time I'd tried on the costume), visitors could also take a horse and carriage ride.

There was also a collection of the costumes worn during the filming of the BBC series.  Below are:

Lizzy and Mr Darcy's walking costumes

 

Lizzy and Mr Darcy's wedding costumes

and

That Shirt! 

Finally, we wandered round the grounds until we came to the lake, into which Mr Darcy (or rather Colin Firth) dived to cool off on that memorable day when Lizzy Bennet came calling.  And there he was, dripping wet and twelve feet tall.

Annie's next book is out in January.  "Courtship in the Regency Ballroom" contains reprints of two of her early stories: "His Cinderella Bride", and "Devilish Lord, Mysterious Miss."

Writing and the Novelistas by Anne Bennett

Anne Bennett writes:

 

All right, I thought it time to write about me and about the lovely Novelistas group that I am part of.  Who are we?  Well Val has told you already, but altogether there are twelve of us and we were formed initially as one of the writing groups affiliated to the Romantic Novelists' Association, that they called Chapters.  What  has evolved from that is a feisty bunch of us who write children's books and fantasy, as well as sagas, historicals and straight romance, both in traditional books and those in e-book format.

I feel this diversity is an enormous benefit and the support given one to another whatever their chosen genre is amazing and what most of our meetings are about, when we all have a chance to relate news as we do a round robin.  We cheer people's successes and commiserate with bad news, and  we also have  a lot of fun and much laughter and we really know how to celebrate launches when people have books published.  Many of you will have seen pictures of these adorning Facebook pages with the cakes and the bubbly and why not?  Life could get very dull if we didn't make time for a little jollification now and then.

And what do I think about the publishing world today?  This is a question I have been asked many times at talks etc around the country.  Well, I think it is an exciting time for writers especially those not as hampered by technology as I am, for if a book cannot be published in the normal way it can be published as an e-book on the net.  Never before has it been so easy to do that, though I am sorry for the publishers that have gone to the wall in the recession.

And what of the future?  Who knows what that will bring? No one does so let's look forward to a new technological age, even if I have some trepidation, it must be overcome because that is the way the world is going.  However difficult it is I feel we must embrace it or be left behind and that is where the Novelista's help is so invaluable.  Thanks to each and every one of you.