T Stands for the Mugs of 2023 (and the requested recipe too)

 Hi everyone. Happy New Year.  It's 2024. Can you believe 2023 has come and gone and now we're back to January again? 

Did anyone have a crazy New Year's Eve? I had a quiet New Years Eve at home. This past Saturday my husband tested positive for COVID, and now I'm half expecting to get sick myself. Luckily the hubby isn't having any severe symptoms since he is high risk, and we're keeping our fingers crossed he's better soon. And so far, I'm feeling just fine. 🤞

Not only is it T Day but  Tuesday is also time for Second on the Second . Our lovely hosts for both of these events are   Bleubeard and Elizabeth .

Because T day is on January 2 (Second on the Second), I decided for this week's T day I would do a look back at all of the mugs I shared on T days in 2023. They may not be  champagne flutes filled with the bubbly, but we can raise a mug to everyone with  hopes for a wonderful new year.

Last winter I drank a lot of hot coco and whipped cream. You might also remember the 2 mugs I bought while visiting Florida for a week in late January.

On a trip to Belfast, Maine later in the year, I visited a kitchen store and saw all these really cool mugs for sale. I didn't buy any though.

However, while on a long weekend trip to Charleston, SC with my friend Ina in May, I did buy a mug to remember my first trip to Buc-ee's.  I also picked up some tea at the Bigelow Tea Plantation when we took a tour.

Most of the year I just enjoyed tea in my home.

I don't know if  shared this photo, but here's my husband's coffee from a time went out to our local hole-in-the wall breakfast place.

More tea at home in my Red Arrow Diner mug. 

And this next photo is what's left to  a big mug of beer and the remnants of a dinner out.(It had been a  bad day...)

 This past fall I had lunch with a friend in a coffee shop where this cool hand drawn poster was on the wall. 

These next 3 photos are pretty recent holiday snapshots.

I had finished a mug of tea one day and took this next photo, and then I never got around to share it for T.

Now all my holiday mugs are about to be packed away with the Christmas decorations until the next season rolls around.

I'll end this post with the new mug I received for Christmas from my hubby.

I like the trees, the color and the shape. I find mugs with an indented middle are easy to hold onto, as long as the liquid inside isn't too hot. Then I need the handle.  I also must admit, I am a true New Englander and LL Bean fan.

 (For those unfamiliar with LL Bean, it is  a clothing, fishing and outdoor gear shop. The main store is located in Freeport, Maine. It's been around a little over 100 years and was made famous when its founder, Leon Leonwood Bean, made boots with rubber bottoms and leather tops for outdoor use. They were a new thing then, even though now there are all kinds of boots like that. I remember when LL Bean was just a small 2 story shop with wooden floors. Since then it's grown- a lot.  Here in New England we just refer to it as Beans and usually drop the LL.)

Have a fantastic first T of 2024. Here's wishing each and every one of you some wonderful mug, cups, bottles, glasses, flutes, or whatever mode you chose to enjoy your T day drinks this new year. 

Addendum:

Some of you asked for my fruit cake recipe from last week, so here it is.

You should make this cake 4-6 weeks before eating.

ingredients:

3/4 cup (170 g) room temperature butter                            1/4 lb (115) candied orange peel

3/4 cup (170 g) firmly packed dark brown sugar              * a handful of chopped walnuts (or nut of choice)

3 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons of Golden Syrup               * a handful of golden raisins

2 eggs                                                                                  1 3/4 c flour (225g)  

1 1/4 whole milk or cream                                                    bandy or whiskey for drizzling

1 pound (450g) dried currants

* The recipe didn't specify amounts, the handful is more of adding to your taste. I bet you could also add other dried fruit like chopped dried apricots or dried cranberries, and it would be really tasty too

1) Preheat oven to 275 degrees F/135 degrees C. Line a 7 or 8 inch spring-form or cake pan with parchment.  Cut 2 long strips of parchment and lay them under the lining parchment. They will be handles to help lift the cake when it needs to come out of the pan. Be sure to grease your lining parchment.

2) Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add and beat in the Golden Syrup. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating after each egg. Now gradually add the milk while still stirring or mixing. 

3) Once the milk is incorporated, fold in the dried fruit and nuts. Finally, fold in the flour until it is full incorporated. 

4) Spoon the batter into the pan.  Place a sheet of parchment on your oven rack big enough to place the pan on. Cover the pan (not directly on the cake batter but over the top of the pan) with another piece of parchment.  Then place the covered cake pan in the oven on the parchment.  Bake until a toothpick in center comes out clean. That will be about 3 hours.

5) Let the cake cool about 1 hour and then remove from pan. With a skewer, poke several holes around the top of the cake. Then drizzle 3-4 teaspoons of  brandy or whiskey over the top. Wrap the  bottom and sides of the cake in parchment or plastic wrap and place in a tin you can close airtight. (I used an old butter cookie tin). Cover the top of the cake with parchment. Then store in a cool place. (I used the refrigerator only because finding a cool place with our warmer weather was difficult.) Remove the cake once each week and drizzle with 3-4 tsps of  brandy or whiskey. 

6) The recipe I used said you could either decorate the top of the cake with fruit and nuts on an apricot jam glaze or you could frost it. It didn't mention the type of frosting. I used a white American style buttercream. You could also use fondant, and as Elle mentioned in her comment, you could add a layer of marzipan under the frosting.