Christmas Baking: 54 Mince Pies, Puddings, Cakes and Biscuits From Scratch

Fruit mince is twenty minutes and a jar, and it gets better every week it sits there. I have been baking since I was thirteen. This is the bench book: the mincemeat, the cake you feed from October, the tin, the gingerbread that holds its shape, and the icing that stays on. Fifty-four recipes in six Parts. The mincemeat and the pies. Eight cakes and the steamed pudding. Nine biscuits for the tin. Gingerbread nine ways, up to house panels that stand with a roof on. Nine Christmas breads, stollen to panettone. Then the royal icing, the marzipan and the finish. Butter, sugar, flour, eggs, fruit, spice and brandy, and nothing in here that has to survive a warehouse. Part Seven is what went wrong and the fix, a number in every fix, and a keeping table for every bake. Make the mincemeat tonight. It needs three weeks in the jar before it tastes like anything. Then put the box in the bin.