For those of you who follow me on Facebook, I recently posted a picture and asked my f0llowers to name a caption. I selected my favorite to win a copy of one of my books – of their choice. I admit, I was a little biased when I saw a reply by Darryl, a very good friend of mine from high school whom I haven’t had contact with in a long time. What a joy to connect with friends from the past, and know that they follow ME !! Darryl won a copy of my book Prime Suspect and I sent him the entire Falsely Accused series. Thank you, Darryl, and all of you for following me on Facebook.

So today I’m thinking about cake. Specifically, a lemon cake that is a tradition at my family’s Christmas Eve gathering. This year I have been tasked with the awesome responsibility of baking and bringing the Christmas Lemon Cake. Here’s the thing – I have baked this cake multiple times in the past, but the recipe has always been referred to (by me) as Mono’s Lemon Cake. Mono was my grandmother. Turns out, this cake was not Mono’s tradition at all. It was Nangy’s – my great-grandmother from an entirely different branch of the family! I know this sounds trivial to you, but it was a traumatic discovery for me. I’ve always thought of this as Mono’s Lemon Cake, and it turns out Mono had nothing to do with it!

Sigh. Childhood memories shattered.

Regardless, it’s an amazing lemon cake, and at this very moment it has been “marinating” in my kitchen (inside Mono’s antique pie safe) for 3 days. We will slice it and eat it on Christmas Eve. I’ll share our family recipe (regardless of which family member it came from) here:

Mono’s (Uh – Nangy’s) Lemon Cake Recipe
3/4 cup oil
1 cup apricot nectar  (comes in a can in the juice section)
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 Lemon cake mix

Mix together in mixer. Grease and flour bundt cake pan – fill with mix.

Bake 350 for 25 minutes – reduce to 325 and bake another 25 minutes.

Turn over on cake holder. While cake is hot, poke holes with toothpick all over. Pour on mixture of :
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

Put in sealed cake cover (I cover that with saran wrap tightly) for 2-3 days.

What are some of your holiday traditional foods? Please share the recipes with me!!!