I’m definitely a Xmas lover, I love the days before Xmas when you make all the preparations - Xmas tree, Nativity, house decorations and last but not least cakes and cookies. I also like cooking for Xmas Eve and day but cakes are my favourite! I start mid-November baking the Xmas Fruitcake as it tastes better if yoy store it for some weeks. I like the smell of candied fruit and raisins which fills the house and makes me dream of small and cosy Tea Rooms in Devon or Cornwall. Yes! One of my dreams is to have a small Tea Room and bake a few cakes a day.
I’m able to leave all the rest behind when it’s Xmas time. My kids say I get obsessed by Xmas baking which could be true, I must admit.. but they all love it in the end... and have their favourite recipes to be prepared. When you love something, you simply do it, without considering how tired you get and how long it takes!
My youngest daughter was still a toddler and I was in England with my students on an exchange programme. I was in a small town not far from Coventry and Birmingham and I remember I was trying to find some little present to take back home. It was the first time I had left my children at home and was abroad without them. I happened to pass by a chocolate shop and saw some chocolate lollipops in the shape of a teddy bear: the right gift for my little baby! It was so cute! She was already a chocoholic although so young.... and I bought one for her...The problem of a chocolate lollipop is that it’s so nice to look at that you feel sorry to eat it.... It was the same for her...
After ten years or more I was again in England with my school students, and this time I was in Devon in Plymouth. It was a couple of weeks before Easter and all the shops were full of chocolate delicacies. It was in a shop full of baking equipment that I saw a lollipop mould and it was mine!
Song: Good Night
Close your eyes and follow me into a chocolate dream world!
