All the presents are wrapped and under the tree. Stuart keeps having a prod and shake…what a child he is!!!

I finally got chance to ice the cake today, not the best icing I’ve ever done, but it was tricky with the heating on and the backdoor open to try and keep the kitchen cool, while the oven was on for festive cooking. It didn’t help that I had had several glasses of a rather a nice rose from Tesco!

While I was having an icing crisis, Mum was busy making the rum truffles, with the proper stuff, not the cheap essence. Every year, this rather tatty extract from a Woman’s Realm Mag appears. I had chance to have a proper glance at it. The receipe is from The Archer’s Country Cookbook by Martha Woodford published in 1977.

I can certainly vouch for the truffles!

4oz dark cooking chocolate
4oz icing sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons ground almonds
2 tablespoons double cream
2 tablespoons rum
chocolate vermicelli

Melt the chocolate over a basin of hot water. Beat in the icing sugar,egg yolk,almonds,cream and rum and pound altogether until mixture is smooth, and form into little balls. Roll each truffle in a little vermicelli and coat it.