Holiday baking

I had so much fun baking all sorts of things this December - and even with making a few recipe modifications, I think everything tasted great! Amy and I made gingerbread "people" (and stars and other shapes, but the recipe book is very p.c. and does call them gingerbread "people") for friends at work, along with a few caramels for each person. That should be enough to bribe people to do our bidding for a few weeks at least... ;)

Hank and I was lucky enough to get a homemade Christmas pudding made by my friend Amy and her mom - we were told to steam it for an hour or so to heat it up, then use brandy or other alcohol, light the alcohol on fire and pour it over the cake. Tragically none of the booze in the house is high enough proof to light fire! But I did make a bit of custard sauce to eat with the finished pudding - it was an amazing end to a tasty dinner!

The kitties also had a tasty Christmas dinner treat of wet food (mostly they just eat dry food). No sooner than I'd popped open the lid of the container, Neko was standing next to me looking up and letting out the loudest MEOW I've ever heard from her. With extra full bellies they have pretty much been sleeping the rest of the day (although I'm not sure that's different from most other days...).

But I think more interesting are the things I've learned about traditional English Christmas baking in general - and there are certainly a lot of traditions! Mincemeat, a combination of dried fruit, suet and other things, is what goes into mince pies. Mince (ground meat) isn't actually a part of mince pies, though. Christmas pudding is set on fire, Christmas cake isn't. And most families seem to incorporate a fair amount of liquor into Christmas dinners, both as part of the Christmas pudding and from a glass... I highly support adopting that tradition into more American Christmas celebrations! Cheers from London!