'Tis the season of PANETTONE...

So I always wondered what language Santa tends to think in.. I'm not even sure what the spoken language of the North Pole really is?.. in Italy, it looks as though he thinks in Panettone!

Ahhh, the joy of Christmas time... ever since I was a little girl, it was never fruit mince pies and Christmas pudding for me, ohhhhh no, it was PANETTONE through and through - when I was working in an Italian cafe in Subiaco a few years back it was even on the breakfast menu, toasted with butter, and it was good... I mean REALLY good, delicious even! It is such a versatile, dry cake - not too sweet and so fluffy!

I even had a recipe back home to fill the Panettone with a litre of ice cream, freeze it overnight, then bake it for 15 minutes in the oven before serving, so tasty - the hot and cold sensation of freshly baked cake and vanilla ice cream party in your mouth while you eat it and stay on your mind forever!

Even to this day it is the traditional gift of this yummy Italian-style Christmas cake that Nonna and her friends trade over the festive season - she usually gets so many of them that they we are still eating them with our coffees for dessert months after Christmas!

My plan is to spend Christmas with my cousin and her family, I was wandering Venice doing my Christmas shopping today and thinking what could be the perfect gift - then it hit me, literally! I walked into the chocolatier that I frequent in Venice with bags of shopping and knocked Santa's head flat off the shelf... uh oh, a bad omen maybe? No wait!! Santa's head was on sale for starters, then I saw the wonderul PERUGINA PANETTONE tag hanging from his hat... "Are you serious, there is Christmas cake behind this dude's face?" Oh yes there was, and you could imagine my excitement! I had to buy it for a laugh, I wish I could send it to Nonna back in Australia as I think she would go crazy over it! But I will settle for passing it on to my cousin's family for Christmas this year... I can't wait!