I've got a Christmas feeling!

Yesterday I decided it was time to make a christmas cake.  I found a great recipe on Baby Mac's blog and you can read it HERE.  Beth's Grandma Dot gave here the recipe so it has to be good right?
So far so good.  I did cut the cooking time back to two hours as I like a bit of moisture in a christmas cake but the smell is divine and it is now wrapped up in a towel and sitting in a cupboard to develop all the flavours.  In a week or so I will transfer it to another container.

Straight out of the oven..

On Saturday I made my way to Yungaburra Markets.  At 6am my friends from Mossman arrived and we were at the markets before 8am.  They are really great markets and not as commercial as I had been told.  I picked up white agapanthas that my gardener wants to use to edge a garden bed, some delicious "quince" paste, baby onions straight out of the garden and a plum pudding!

Doesn't this sound delicious.  It will be perfect on a cheese platter.

I tasted this plum pudding before I bought it and it really is good. 

We spent a few hours at the markets and wandering through the village.  We watched the bikers leave Yungaburra for their annual christmas ride.  They apparently donate a lot of money from this ride to kids in need.  On our way to Yungaburra we had decided that we would have lunch back in Mareeba at Coffee Works.  This was a good decision as we found out that we had to be out of Yungaburra by 12.30pm as the roads were going to be closed for a local triathlon.
This was my first visit to Coffee Works and it won't be my last.  The steak sandwich that I washed down with an Iced Coffee was very tasty with the steak literally melting in the mouth.  After lunch we wandered around the gift shop where I was able to pick up a few "stocking" fillers.
It really was a lovely day spent with good friends and we have all agreed that we will do it again in the new year.