I started planning for Christmas early this year. July to be precise. That's the month when brands with Christmas products to promote hold shows to display their wares to the press.

You can find out all sorts of interesting things here. Like the fact that The King's Ginger - a tasty liqeur created in 1903 for King Edward VII - is a very good cake ingredient. And so to celebrate December 8th, the traditional start of Christmas in Ireland - formerly a holy day when shops and workplaces were closed and everybody did their Christmas shopping - I baked a ginger cake and a ham, put up the tree and had a few friends around.

The ginger cake turned out very well (so did the tree, they look very good together as you can see). Here's the recipe for The King's Ginger and Sultana Loaf.

100g sultanas
75ml The King's Ginger
100g wholemeal spelt flour
75g plain white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground allspice
125g unsalted butter, melted
1 tbsp black treacle
100g soft brown sugar
2 large eggs, whisked
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place the sultanas into a smallsaucepan with The King's Ginger and gently bring to the boil. Switch off heat and leave sultanas for an hour to soak up the liqueur.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 1lb loaf tin. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl, mixing well.
Put the cooled melted butter, treacle and sugar into a mixer bowl. Mix for one minute and add the eggs one at a time. When the wet ingredients are combined add the dry ingredients, vanilla essence and soaked sultanas.
Pour this batter into loaf tin and cook for 30-40 minutes (to test if it's done a skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean).

The King's Ginger costs £19.50 and is available from www.bbr.com, phone 0800 280 2440 for stockists

I boiled my ham in ginger beer before transferring to the oven to bake with cloves and mustard - delcious! Or if you fancy something a little stronger, try this ham with a mulled wine glaze
See all of our Christmas cake recipes, plus decorating tips

Happy Christmas!