Christmas Traditions

Gentle Friends as we wrap up the year tonight it is always good to look back not only over the year but further back to other New Year Eve's, thinking back to when I was small and seeing my parents going out all dressed up to some party or some other fancy event - my dad in his white diner jacket and my mom dressed up and covered in one of her furs to keep out the cold (she did love a good fur... be it a wrap, coat or stole) in a cloud 

of Joy by Jean Patou.

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It was the same this Christmas, it was a low key day, with just the two of us and some friends coming over we combined some of our family Christmas traditions and memories - From Rico's family came the main dishes, he made a big enchilada and Spanish rice - we also had pork and cheese tamales....  my contribution was the cake.  If you have been reading this Blog for a while you know that one of the oldest family traditions I keep up is a Birthday Cake for baby Jesus.  I make a different one every year and this year I settled on a "Robert E Lee Cake."  An old fashioned southern cake that I had seen my mom make many times for special occasions.  There are many variations of this cake.... the cake I remember well is pretty easy - and of course a snaperoo.....

....  it's two 9 inch white cake layers (split in half), some lemon curd for the filling and lemony/orange coconut icing.....  you can click HERE for a pretty basic recipe.  You would have to leave out the yolks from this cake recipe so that it stays white but other than that it stays pretty true to the majority of versions.  Of course we had to have ice cream with the cake and with it being such a lemony cake vanilla fit the bill perfectly.

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There you go sports fans, have a wonderful New Years eve, stay safe - I'm staying in and off the road!!

Take care,

edgar