Is it cold enough for you? Television or a book with a blanket in a big comfy armchair? And what about a hot spice tea with loukoumades, doughnuts or a piece of yummy cake sitting on the coffee table.
But first, the warm spice tea for all occasions. In the old days, Greeks drank tea only if they were sick, and I don’t mean the very old days but as recently as the ’60s and ’70s. I know that for some of you that is truly old days but believe me, it’s not.
And a good tea was spiced up with something or other. I have attached a recipe for a spiced wintery hot tea below. And I will give you several recipes for cakes to go with the spicy tea. I was going to give a recipe for loukoumades too but I thought that loukoumades deserve a history lesson and some recipes from different parts of the eastern Mediterranean, so stay tuned for that in a week or two.
In the meantime, let’s look at cakes and the warm winter feeling of them. And what could be warmer then a good chocolate cake. A chocolate cake – with a Greek twist. As you know, cake recipes are endless so I will try and give you recipes that have that little bit of Greek in them – mastic, yoghurt, spices and so forth.
You can always substitute butter with a light olive oil, and wheat flour with soya, rice, chickpea or potato flour or a mixture of these.
This variation of flours makes for gluten free eating for those of us who have family and friends with allergies.
With the exception of the bread and butter pudding that is very English (I have given you a recipe with a French twist), all the other cakes are from Greek sources.
Be aware that a cake in Greek is called a pita, although these days even in Greece it is called a cake and please not a keki – we do want our children to speak some correct Greek.