Oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree, how lovely are your branches

My mother in law kindly volunteered me to make the 'Guess the weight of the cake' cake for the local village Christmas Craft fete.  Always happy to help out a good cause, and flex the creative muscle I agreed and racked my brains for a christmassy themed cake.  I came up with this bad boy.  The tree is made from a vanilla sponge with a chocolate buttercream filing, topped with vanilla buttercream.  The trunk and pot are made from chocolate cake truffle, with the trunk coated in cake crumbs to make it look tree-like, and copper gold edible glitter to make it look all sparkly, innit.  The star is made from dark chocolate with a layer of white chocolate on top, and then more gold glitter.  There is no such think as too much glitter.

The guesses were from the tiny to the ridiculous.  A local farmer, complete with tweedy jacket and rouge cheeks guessed the nearest weight and was the lucky recipient of the cake and the glory.

Vintage finds at the village fete

On my list of favourite things, featuring highly is the village fete.  All those traditional stalls  from your childhood are still going strong, the tombola (where you win back the tins you donated 2 years ago) splat-the-rat, the raffle, the farmyard derby (my personal favourite), skittles, guess the weight of the cake / baby / chicken.  And of course the cake stall.  Turn up late and the cake stall is always totally empty, as it gets raided first, like a tuck shop at midnight.

Well, here in our corner of the world we pride ourselves on a good village fete and ours most usually has entertainment.  Last year it was Morris Dancing men, fearsome fellows with handkerchiefs who bashed the hell out of some sticks and then waved bells at each other.  They were brilliant.  This year we had a chap playing a squeeze box, with his dear lady wife accompanying him on the spoons (I kid you not) and the guitar and a lovely warbly voice.  They were charm itself.

On the jumble stall, I managed to find these totally lovely plates, which I think I got for a quid.  Amazing.  I love them.  And of course we bought millionaire shortbread from the cake stall, and geraniums from the plant stall.  Darling boy and little brother had a marvellous time, winning mini mars bars on the hoopla and larking about with their chums.