Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

After the mouse smell went from the cupboard under the stairs and we finally decided to board up the hole, I entered the kitchen a couple of days ago and shouted "Mouse" (like a demented Bingo game!) as I caught the telltale whiff of Mr S. I know from experience that a mouse can get into the bottom kitchen drawer via the gap left to allow access to an electric socket so that's the place I looked. It's the drawer that contains all the plastic containers, many of which had small "offerings" in the bottom. I cleared it all out, antibacterial spray all round, boxes washed and stashed for the moment elsewhere, and we set the trap in the space where the drawer would have been. No joy next morning. I decided it was too light with the drawer out so I set the trap again inside the closed drawer. Result! One miffed house mouse surrounded by raisins and peanuts. After we took a snap of him, he was taken on his holidays into the field behind the wood.

This morning I set off with my spade and fork with a couple of others from our Village in Bloom team. The object was a good tidy-up of some of the beds that had got a bit weed choked over the past couple of months. We went a few weeks back as a bigger group and managed most of the planting sites but a few had got away so we mopped them up this morning. Village looks better already.

The Christmas cake is in the oven as I write. It's a recipe I've not used before, as follows - it's from The Complete Christmas Cook book published by Index.

225 g/8 oz unsalted butter

225 g/8 oz soft brown sugar

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teasp vanilla extract

4 teasps orange marmalade (I used home made)

4 teasps golden syrup

1.25 kg/2.25lb mixed dried fruit (I included cranberries and cherries)

225 g/8 oz plain flour

50 g/2 oz self raising flour

2 teaspoons mixed spice

1 teasp ground cinnamon

(I also added a large teasp ground cloves - Christmas isn't Christmas without the smell of

cloves!)

120 ml/4 fl oz of rum, brandy or port - I used brandy.

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2

Line base and sides of a deep 8" square cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl till light and soft.

Gradually add the eggs beating well after each addition.

Add the vanilla extract, marmalade and syrup and beat well.

Stir in the fruit.

Using a metal spoon, fold in the flours and spices alternately with the liquid and stir until the ingredients are just combined.

Spoon into the prepared tin and smooth the top.

Wrap a double thickness of brown paper around the tin and secure with a paper clip.

Bake for 3 - 3.5 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave overnight in the tin before turning out.

I'm topping with marzipan but no icing. Tastes have changed since my childhood. Most of our family find icing too sweet. Just before Christmas I shall make some marzipan holly leaves and berries and colour them with food colouring I think. In the meantime the cake will be treated to a quantity of brandy every couple of days to slake its thirst.