no to pudding, yes to cake?

As i said in my flourless chocolate cake blog, I dont really sign up to the whole christmas pudding deal but since it was left in my hands to dole out this years christmas meal, quite frankly my much cherished grandad would have gone home were there not something that at least winked towards a traditional christmas desert; so something had to be done. So christmas puddings take months and months to make and I simply refuse to buy ready made things for christmas dinner. I know someday this will probably change and I can see why million of people do buy in ready roasties and already prepared veg, I don't judge anyone for it and there are some really great shortcuts out there but I'm lucky enough that I have enough surplus time to prattle about for a few hours and do everything homemade, so for now i will. So with a christmas pudding out the window a christmas cake was slightly more plausible. Its a lot simpler to make, it doesn't require as much time and as I did, I think you can jazz it up a bit more and just look that bit more special. I will properly blog the recipe at some point but it's long and fiddily and I want to have a look at it and make it as simple and straight forward for you to follow, so for now I'm just going to wet your whistle with a little picture. Enjoy!