Xmas Baking

 I used the last of last years Xmas mincemeat to make something different

Christmas mincemeat cookie cake

A cake base, a layer of mincemeat and more cake mix on top. 

It turned out really well. 

Since then I've seen a recipe for Xmas mincemeat shortbread. Same sort of thing. Shortbread base, mincemeat, shortbread.  Looks easy and delicious. 

Then I made traditional fruity mince pies as well. Homemade filling and pastry

Great with custard says friend Jan, who should know. She's a local-alien from England and has eaten the 'real thing'. 

Even if it was 45 years ago

Gingerbread with Petimezi instead of molasses or treacle.  A simple gingerbread recipe using petimezi which is syrup of grapes. 

I made this by boiling down 5 litres of grape juice till a half litre remained. 

I've never seen molasses on sale here but Grape syrup is sold everywhere. It lasts forever. I use it in cakes and biscuits.

 Gingerbread men

This morning I took English Christmas cakes, doused in 5* Metaxa brandy, along with bottles of red wine liqueur, to the girls in the accountancy office where daughter Elli works. 

The 3 girls and granddaughter Luli  spent all day Sunday baking Xmas cookies and muffins. 

Their gingerbread men are epic. Nice and peppery. Ginger gives it the basic flavour but the recipe has salt and pepper too.

Elli and Maria are girls with mothers who are local aliens. One from NZ and one from Honduras. Honduras is the country whose capital city has the wonderful name of Tegucigalpa. One New Years Maria brought us homemade tamales! 

You could say that Katerina is another alien child. Her mother comes from Methana, the town under the volcano, down the road a while and round quite a few corners.

We're a cosmopolitan island.