Food: Treacle Flapjacks

Saturday is cake making day.  Our frugal budget limits us to one baking day a week.  I was thinking flapjacks and when I asked the other half if there was anything he fancied as the cake-of-the-week, he, unprompted, announced flapjack.  After twenty years of un-marriage we are on the same wavelength.  When it comes to cakes, at least.

All of which was a bit unfortunate as, when I went to the cupboard, the cupboard was bare.  Well, the golden syrup bit of it, at least.  Time to improvise. Nothing new there as it is always a bit of a random recipe, depending what is, or in this case, is not to be found in the store cupboard.

But these are good, sticky, gooey, healthy (ish.  If you ignore the sugar, syrups and butter!) with a goodly amount of prunes and the substitution of black treacle made them deeper in flavour and less sweet than some.

Grown-up Jacks?  No, not really.

Food: Christmas Cake

Every year I make Christmas Cake, feed it with booze, and then top it with marzipan and icing.  Every year when I come to eat it, I then pick off the icing and marzipan and feed them to Mr Stella.  As does everyone else in the family.  Yet another Christmas Family Tradition, then.

Actually, I love the fruity, booziness of the cake itself, and making the cake on the last weekend in November and then giving it a top of brandy every Saturday morning in the run up to the big day is all part of the festivities. And one I'm happy to keep.

Thankfully we've long since dispensed with spending money we cannot spare on unwanted gifts for people who have everything they need anyway.  How do parents make Christmas special when so many children seem to get whatever they want when ever they want it?  A nightmare.


Anyway, back to The Cake