What's cooking this week: Now's the time to bake your Christmas cake

Dust off those cake pans because there’s just under a month to go until Christmas.

If you’re a traditionalist, who believes that the best festive fruitcakes are homemade and doused periodically with brandy, now’s the time to bake one.

I adore Christmas cake and, more than the eating of it, it’s the ritual of making it that gets me going. The beauty of a fruitcake is once you have a recipe, you can easily make it your own.

Chef Mynhardt Joubert, who bakes 120 of his famous Free State Fruitcakes each year as part of an annual charity drive, agrees: “A beautifully wrapped fruitcake makes for the best gift ever — the homemade touches make people feel special.”

Joubert, who shared his special fruitcake recipe and baking tips with the Sunday Times, suggests adding your favourite nuts or some green fig preserve to the mix.

However, he cautions, “go slow with the spices, as they can easily overpower the other ingredients. Stick to warm, welcoming cinnamon.”

Yvonne Short, chef and Christmas cake baker par excellence, is also planning to shake things up this year. “Brandy is passé,” she says, “rum is the next big thing.”

In addition to swapping brandy for rum, Short will be adding dark chocolate — the quality stuff — zesty orange rind, lots of ginger and pineapple to her fruitcake for a tropical take on tradition. Interesting.

I'm hoping Nigella Lawson bakes a Christmas cake as part of her new show, Cook, Eat, Repeat. The celeb chef has been whipping the internet into a frenzy with her use of unusual ingredients (like banana skins and liquorice), so I'd be fascinated to see what additions she'd make to a classic fruitcake.

Here’s what else has been cooking in the world of food, wine — and my kitchen — this week: