I still feel Christmas stockings should have an orange in the toe, eaten while the grown-ups still sleep. The guiltiness of creeping downstairs to unwrap presents, to be surprised by sleepy parents and found with orange peel and chocolate wrappers strewn around us. The smell of oranges is a Christmas smell for me, laden with the past preciousness of this fruit now taken so much for granted. The occasion of the season remains for me with clementines at their best in the winter. Nigella's clementine cake is the cake I make myself for Christmas and the smell of the simmering clementines, and the baking cake,create a thick, sweet tangerine fugginess that signals the festive season.
My kids have rebelled against clementines in their stockings as their place in the fruit bowl is taken for granted, so in the spirit of spherical deliciousness they get a Lush bath bomb in the toe of their stockings. This year's is orange-scented and pleases me much.
