Zena Skinner's Christmas Cake recipe

Zena Skinner is (apparently) a legendary TV cook from c. 40 years ago. Her rich and luscious Christmas Cake recipe was mentioned on BBC's Points West this evening - a few stalwart families have handed down the typewritten recipe over the years and still swear by it.

Zena's Christmas Cake comes in round and square versions of various sizes and is richer in fruit than customary today. Here is the link to her cookbook (PDF) - refer to pages numbered 60-64 (physical pages 62-66 if you want to print them) for the Christmas Cake recipe.

The cookbook is also (via resellers) available on Amazon.

The cake should have been made in October, to give it time to mature, so there's hardly any time to waste.

Clare is on the case - and here is her Zena Skinner Christmas cake straight out of the oven.

A Zena Skinner Christmas Cake

Jenny Jones and me: the video

Sixteen second clip from BBC Points West, Monday February 24th 2014.

Shows Jenny Jones, Olympic snowboarding bronze medallist at the Mendip Snowsport Centre. Also, in the background with grey jacket and black trousers a novice skier: first descending the slope badly and waving his arms for balance; then drinking some water with his back to the camera to Jenny's right; and finally on right of picture ascending the button lift in the distance.

Dear reader, it was me!

It is steep! It is! This is the last skiing post you'll get from me for a while: promise!