…is  not a Greek tradition for Christmas, but it certainly is in our home. As you will find out, if you follow me during this daily challenge, I like cooking and baking my favorite recipes from around the world; food brings back memories, not only flavors. I used to bake “The Christmas Fruit Cake” year after year, ever since the late ’80s. It has been at least six years since I baked the last one; sad occasions prevented our family from celebrating the holidays as we used to in the old days. This year, I am determined to bring back the joy and bake “The Fruit Cake” once more, to help us move forward and heal the wounds.

I use the traditional recipe that you can find on the BBC site and I want to share it with you: now, I have to warn you, I always use whisky to mature the cake, I only once used brandy, it wasn’t to my taste; I also used rum once, no, it was too heavy a flavor for us. Whisky is what works best for our family, but you know what is your favorite alcohol to use.

My family and I call it “The Drunken Cake” for obvious reasons: when it comes to maturing it, be generous. Alcohol is absorbed by the dried fruits and this preserves the cake and makes it so delicious. Right now, I have to leave you to go and pour this into a pan and then in the oven, but I will be taking pictures and post them later on during the week, so you can see what our wonderful Christmas Fruit Cake looks like, while maturing!!!

So, what about you? Do you bake anything special for these days? Are you following a traditional recipe or have you improvised one? I would really like to know all about it, so, don’t forget to write a comment below! See you here tomorrow for a new blog post!!!