December Baking
Mince Pies
Inspired by the Pin-polishing tart, Jane decided to get the mincemeat tarts going – none too soon! It’s less than a week until Christmas!
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Peeking
And look what was in the Crafty Advent Calendar on December 17…
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Rum-Soaked Fruits
…Rum-Soaked Fruits!
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Christmas Cake
Jane felt obliged to get out the Christmas cake recipe. It would have been better made a month ago, but we didn’t have rum-soaked fruit until just now, and anyway, our favourite photographer says it is never too late to make fruitcake!!
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Pecans
While Jane was in the baking mood, Abigail and Graziella begged her to make Polvorones…unfortunately we had no ground pecans…
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Food Chopper, Nicely Tinned
…but we do have a No 10 Food Chopper (Nicely Tinned).
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Turning
So Graziella had a go with turning the handle…
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Grinding
…et voila! Ground Pecans!
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Ground nuts!
A perfect amount of fresh and perfectly ground and delicious nuts!
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Cloth
On the 18th we found a beautifully cloth-wrapped gift…
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Furoshiki
…and found another cloth wrapping inside! The wrappings are the present…how wonderful! They came with instructions that show us how to wrap gifts in cloth – a Japanese tradition dating back at least 1200 years!
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Some of each!
So Abigail, Gilly and Graziella took a few mince pies, pepparkakkor, currant cookies and polvorones…
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First Try
…and did their best to wrap them in a Furoshiki style for their favourite youngest Human!
Thank you crafty friends for your treats, gifts and inspiration!
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Quimper Hittys 
What a lovely parcel they made! Your rum-soaked fruit reminds me that I have a jar of cumquats soaking in rum in the pantry. I might have to extract some of both, chop the fruit and use some of the rum in a fruit cake of my own… Thank you for the inspiration!
Oh! How exciting to have a forgotten jar of rum-soaked fruit to use up! Our Fruitcake is sitting on the counter as I speak – our favourite photographer claims we are torturing him!
I’m not allowed to make whole Christmas cakes any more. I have no impulse control where fruit cake is concerned, so it’s simply safer not to have it in the house for the sake of my blood sugar! Fruit Mince pies are manageable, but even too many of them…
Ah, it’s so cool to see what each and every gift leads to with your creative mind and hands.
we are having fun with all the gifts…creativity is a gift that ripples outwards!
the kitchen is a wonderful place at this time of year, the smells must be delightful. The girls did a very good job tying the furoshiki.
Thank you! We were so pleased with the wrapping cloths – have been trying to minimise the wrapping paper for years especially the plastic and metallic kinds which can’t be recycled.
What an exciting story and photographs, especially no.2 fascinated me. It is almost a real action… Loved so much. Thank you dear Hitty Lady, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and to you family, Love, nia
Thank you Nia – little girl in photo #2 is so cute, almost everything she does!
What fun it always is to read your posts. Those sound like superior goodies!
Thanks! the gifts are all so different and interesting! It is always fun for the Hittys to find ways to amuse themselves with each day’s surprise!
the fruitcake will be grand I am sure. Love the wrapping as gift idea…how clever. I suspect the youngest Quimper human will be very pleased with her beautifully wrapped treats.
Young human is very like the Hittys in that way – beautiful wrappings and treats are ingredients for a delightful day!