Italian Christmas Cake

Add Granulated Sugar (2 cups) to a mixing bowl and sift in All-Purpose Flour (3/4 cup). Transfer this into a medium-size saucepan and put it on a stove at a low-medium temperature. Add Milk (4 cups) and Eggs (8) and stir to combine using a whisk. Drop-in 2 peelings of rind from the Lemon (1/2) Cinnamon Sticks (2), and Vanilla Bean Pods (to taste).

Stir gently and continuously while on the heat for 5-10 minutes or until you see it start to thicken and form. Remove from heat.

Get a large mixing bowl and pour the custard into the bowl through a sieve so that you can get rid of any lumps and also to make sure the cinnamon, lemon and vanilla don’t drop inside. Add a layer of glad wrap on top of the custard so that it is touching it and stick the edges to the sides of the bowl. Then, press down gently on the custard using your finger to prevent any air bubbles from forming. Keep this in the fridge for a couple of hours to cool.

Remove Pandoro Cake (1.7 lb) from the packaging and put the icing sugar to the side. Place the Pandoro on its side and using a sharp, long knife, cut it into 5 slices. Make sure the bottom slice is slightly thicker than the others. Place the bottom layer on a chopping/serving board and spread a thick layer of custard on top, in the center, using a spatula. Then, place the next slice of Pandoro on top, making sure it is off center so that you start forming the shape of a Christmas tree.

Lather custard on top of this layer and place the next slice on top. Repeat this until you top off the Christmas cake. Put a few spoonfuls of custard into the piping bag and squeeze small amounts onto each star peak of your Christmas tree.

Starting with the bottom layer, place Fresh Mint Leaves (to taste) on top of the custard swirls and add Fresh Raspberries (to taste) to each one. On the layer above place Fresh Blueberries (to taste) on top of the swirls and then repeat.

Add more custard to the top of your Italian Christmas cake and then decorate the way you like with fruit on top. Finally using a sieve, sift the Powdered Confectioners Sugar (to taste) on top of the dessert so it looks like s touch of snow!