THERE are just over five weeks until Christmas Day and reluctantly we must start thinking about what we’re going to eat.

First things first, let’s get the big one out of the way.

The Christmas cake is one thing you really should have in the house in case people pop round.

A slice of cake can be taken at most times of the day, with either a cup of tea or a glass of something fortified, and bolstered with a fat wedge of cheese, makes for a great snack on the hoof.

It also benefits from being matured for a few weeks, to really allow the flavours to develop and that’s why we need to make it now.

It will, if kept at a cool ambient temperature, keep almost indefinitely and certainly until you scoop up the last crumbs of that final slice in January.

Don’t be daunted by the list of ingredients.

They all live under one supermarket roof and making the cake is actually very easy indeed. It’s something everyone can have a go at, perhaps on a toasty Sunday at home with the family.

You’ll note that I haven’t taken the cake that extra step and covered it in marzipan or icing.

This is for two reasons, both valid.

One, I’m hopeless at cake decorating – Tracy, my wife, is superb at icing and sugarcraft, but this is my article – and two, I’m not sure it’s necessary unless you’re showing off the cake.

Wedding cakes should of course be iced and decorated with much flair and pizzazz, but the Christmas cake, in my humble opinion, should be a simple, well-made rich fruit cake, ready to be cut for friends and family and nibbled while watching the fire or It’s A Wonderful Life.

One final thing – I was researching Christmas cakes on the internet and came across the most remarkable fact. Christmas cakes are very popular in the Philippines, of all places, and are often traditionally flavoured with ambergris, the scented excretion of sperm whales, commonly used in perfume-making, or perhaps more remarkably, the musk of civet cats. Needless to say, how you flavour your cake is up to you and if you have a willing and agile Tomcat handy then you have my blessing.

But I’ll be sticking with Cognac, thank you very much.