Holiday Traditions

Italian Butter Cookies, Rum Cake, and Christmas Morning Coffee Cake

Growing up we weren’t a family that made Christmas cookies. No gathering of the family around the table to roll out, or press, or bake, or decorate. Our Sicilian traditions were more cakes and pastries. There is one exception, my mother’s Italian Butter Cookies. She passed on her handwritten card and a typed version. The similarities in our handwriting is astounding. Perhaps also explaining my affinity for these cookies.

winter is butter cookies…a lot of butter cookies

My mother always used a cookie press to form her cookies. Sometimes the dough was colored red or green and an appropriate, alternating color half glacé cherry fit in the middle. In later years, my sister-in-law and I would experiment with rolling the dough out and filling with preserves then rolling it up to cut out as pin wheels. A favorite combination filling is apricot preserves and mini chocolate chips. Dust the baked cookies out of the oven with confectioner’s sugar. As holiday cookie making goes, over the years I opted for rolling and cutting out and icing. This tradition was really developed for children and now grandchildren.

holiday butter cookie children’s cookie efforts

Every few years we have the opportunity to do cookies with a family gathering. Honestly, I’m not a fan of doing them alone. Family makes it so much better and there are a lot of cookies! Grandchildren have made the greatest additions and as the main motivators. An homage to the original pressed cookie with glacé cherries is mandatory.

brothers being brothers, a simple icing idea, and the original pressed cookies with glacé cherries

Rum Cake

This was my father-in-laws favorite holiday dessert (of mine). The recipe is from my mother and from the time BEFORE there was “pudding in the cake” of boxed cake mix. I still use a boxed cake mix. It is simple and freezes well and yummy with a dollop of whipped cream. I’m experimenting with a non-alcolholic version with apple juice and some warm spices; cardamom, cinnamon, cloves. I’ll get you an update on that recipe! Or share one, if you experiment.

nobody messes around with brand names like a 1970s recipe

Christmas Morning Coffee Cake

This recipe comes from my sister-in-law (1981). We have a lot of shared recipes from years of sharing visits, cooking, and cousins. We made this virtually every Christmas and then my mother-in-law asked for the recipe and it became one of her staples. I miss her emailing me to tell me she’d made the cake and it was in the freezer ready for Christmas morning. My husband’s sister has the recipe, too. This is the delight of food and stories and history…we travel the world and through generations with shared food stories.

I hope this travels well with you, too.