Friday 27 November 2015

Christmas cakes and library van day

Yesterday I got the tins all ready for making the Christmas cakes, today I added all the other ingredients to the fruit that had been soaking for 3 days and stirred for ages then got the mix into the tins. Two have been topped with almonds for mini Dundee cakes and the others will be marzipaned and iced. 4 are for gifts.
 One of the things I like from Lakeland (as opposed to all their many, many silly gadgets) is the parchment mini roll for lining round cake tins, makes the job a lot less fiddley. I use a double layer for the bigger cakes.
Into the oven for long slow cooking and out again a few hours later
When they are cool I'll wrap them in grease proof and foil and the big one will get fed with a little brandy every week until it's decorated.


 The library van was round today so as usual I biked down to the village to collect my requests. A good haul to last me through to January as Decembers visit is cancelled because it clashes with Christmas.


Sorry it's a bit blurry, I'll re-do it when the Davis Cup tennis has finished on TV,  GB's first time in the final for umpteen years!
There are several Christmas stories there to get me in the right mood including two from Anne Perry who  has written several short Christmas Crime Novellas. A chicklit by Trisha Ashley, The Geogette Heyer - A Christmas Party has just been reprinted, it was originally published in 1941. I'm very excited by the Alys Clare new book, the next in the Hawkenlye historical crime series and the new Anne Perry in the Inspector Pitt series. There are a couple of books about the home front - The Taste of War by Lizzie Collingham and Our Land at War by Duff Hart Davis. Also several by authors new to me.

The 27th tip- very apt for library van day - is :- Do you need to buy a book straight away, wait for paperback or for secondhand or just borrow it from the library.

 Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday and for the information about recovering from strokes. I do hope our friend gets better soon.

Back Soon
Sue 

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