Rudolf Buns And Seeds

You’re looking at a Rudolf bun.  I made about three dozen of them for our church Christmas Fair yesterday and – I’m glad to say – every one of them found a youthful owner!  As you can see, Rudolf has the requisite red nose, which is either due to severe cold (it’s parky up in Finland) or (and this is, perhaps, the reason for Rudolf being shunned by his fellow reindeer) he’s been a bit too free with the Christmas drinks.  Either way, old Rudy makes a very nice bun.

The antlers are made out of toffee. The antlers were bigger, but my Dad dropped the bun and poor old Rudolf suffered a bit. If I was making more Rudolf buns, and especially in the industrial quantities I churned them out, I think I’d use chocolate mint sticks, as the antlers were easily the hardest part. I know reindeers shed their antlers, but , even without Dad's help, Rudy did it a bit too enthusiastically for my liking!  Daughter Jessica roped herself in a fellow deer herdsman and she ran a sort of reindeer antler production line, as I melted the toffee in the microwave and she made antler shapes on a glass worktop with a wooden spatula.

Melting toffee in the microwave is dead easy.  A few toffees melt down in about 30 seconds or so, but put them in a glass Pyrex dish. I melted the bottom out of my plastic bowl very early on in the proceedings!

Still, it was all in a good cause.  I like the Christmas Fair.  It used to be called a Sale of Work years ago, which sounds a bit more earnest than a “fair” but it was always good fun, in that way things are fun when people have genuinely put some effort into things.   I and my friend Liz once starred as Santa’s fairies!  There’s still plenty of home-made stuff to buy, amongst the donations of unwanted gift, old books, DVD's and CD's, such as puddings, cakes and jams but the real money-spinners are the raffles and tombolas, of course.  One cert of a money maker is the whisky raffle, where a ticket is drawn when 20 tickets are sold.  Each ticket costs a pound, the whisky (bought wholesale) is about £10 or £11 a bottle, so that’s about 10 quid profit, there’s a good chance of winning and everyone’s happy!

It’s also a chance to catch up with old friends.  Joe was there, who I haven’t seen for a time.  He’s getting on a bit and has recently been in hospital.  He regaled everyone who would listen, as people are apt to do, with waaaay too much detail about having a camera inserted where the sun doesn't shine and the problems therein.  The trouble is, he’s been eating Healthy Bread.   You know the type – it’s organic and wholemeal and full of seeds.  The doctor operating the camera didn’t like the seeds.  The seeds were still all too visible and obscured the lens.  “All I can see,” said the doctor in reproof, “are seeds.”

“Never mind the seeds,” said Joe.  “Have you found the budgie yet?”