Okay I know it is much to early to be talking about Christmas, I know all the lines, :–….. earlier every year ….. wait ’till after Halloween ……. When I was young we never put up a decoration before…..

But if you want to organise a family Christmas with any hope of the family attending you have to start thinking about it around mid-summer’s day.
From the spring of this year I was nurturing a little evil thought in my head.

Before I divulge this thought I would like to say a few words in my defence.

For the last thirty five (odd) years I have thrown my heart and soul into Christmas and the cooking of same.
We have always had a house full, once we even invited Sile’s extended family and had 28 staying over Christmas (we were in the restaurant at the time, and a lot of them were little, so it was not-quite-as much a squash as that sounds.)

During this time I have become fairly proficient at producing the Christmas dinner and all the traditional trimmings.
In my other role as cooking guru to the people of Waterford I am in constant demand over the Christmas period to talk, demonstrate and especially answer questions about every possible aspect of The Dinner .
Christmas is the time when all the insecure cooks feel obliged to come out of the closet and search frantically for help.
Sometimes I feel that if I was never to see or hear of Plum Pudding etcetera again I wouldn’t be too distressed.
I must say at this stage that if ever I made the merest hint about changing any of our usual Christmas food traditions my three daughters were up in arms.

This year, I knew , was going to be our turn to have Caitriona and Aonghus (my married eldest daughter and spouse). This formula of turn and turn about has been very fairly worked out with the Butlers, his parents.

The evil thought was that we might spend Christmas in France where we now have loads more space (Six bedrooms and five bathrooms on the last count-it is intending to be a B&B after all) than we have in Waterford (three bedrooms and one bathroom).
Not only more space but as most of our traditional trappings of Christmas are unavailable over there we would have to do Noël à la Française ...
(which seems to consist mainly of lashings of shellfish-Yum!)

However….
The best laid schemes….

Now you will all know how absolutely delighted I am that I will be a grandfather in January but, it must be admitted this has put a stop to my gallop.
There is no way daughter Caitriona can fly to France a few weeks before her accouchement in Hollis Street.
So Christmas in Waterford it is.

Just two weeks ago I gathered the daughters together and begged them to lay down a few essentials for Christmas.
They are all a little more grown up now so after some baulking I was allowed to change from Turkey to Goose (provided the stuffing stayed the same) and maybe change the vegetables about a little (without touching the spiced roast spuds) and yes, I could experiment a little with an alternate Christmas Cake.
Small victories for a chef who imagined he was going to be serving Lobster, Oysters and Prawns on the terrace in Languedoc on Christmas Day (in the correct French tradition) but in this case I was certainly a beggar not a chooser.

I started my researches into alternate Christmas Cakes this week.
Based on a combination of the traditional Tea Brack and a Boiled Fruit Cake but using, far more aromatic, Earl Grey tea and eschewing all the dried fruit I never cared for (mixed peel, hard dark raisins, angelica) and substituting those I love (Apricots, Prunes, Stem Ginger) I have come up with something rather delicious.

The despiriting thing is that at the end of the day I may have just substituted one tradition for another and -should I live long enough- may come to be as heartily sick of this one.

Earl Grey Fruit Cake

(Needs 2 x Ikg Loaf Tins)

300g (10oz.) Sultanas
150g (5 oz.) Chopped Dried Apricots
100g (3 oz.) Prunes, chopped
60g (2 oz.) Chopped Stem Ginger
150g (5oz.) Dark Brown Sugar
150g (5oz.) Caster Sugar
2 Cups of Strong Earl Grey Tea (freshly brewed and drawn)
150g (5 oz.) Unsalted Butter (melted)
300g (10oz.) Flour
3 medium eggs
2 tsps. Baking powder
1 generous handful Pine Nuts

Mix the fruit , sugar and tea together and soak for 12 hours.
Or
Bring to the boil in a large pot and then leave to cool.
(if you do it this way you can mix the cake in the pot and save on wash up)

Sieve together the flour with the baking powder, beat the eggs together
with the melted butter, and add these alternately to the fruit.Mix together well.
Grease well two 1 kg. loaf tins, line the bottoms with greaseproof paper or tinfoil and divide the mixture between the two.
Bake these at 180C 350F Gas 5 (or about 150C in a fan oven) for 1 hour to 1 Hour 15 mts, test with a skewer, it should come clean.