Italian Christmas desserts: what to do with leftover panettone and pandoro

Panettone is Italy’s traditional Christmas dessert, but some people will indulge in Pandoro as well, which is often identified with Easter in Italy as the cake of choice for that season.
If you’re like me, you’ll find Italian Christmas desserts a little boring compared to the richer, Anglo Saxon pudding or Christmas cake.

In which case, you can jazz up your Pandoro to make it more exciting.
You can use grapes and other fruit with your Pandoro, inserting them on skewers and then, in turn, inserting them into the gaps in the Pandoro cake.

To decorate, you can use some vine leaves, even spraying them with anti-toxic gold paint to give them a little more sparkle.
Another option (my personal favourite) is to cover your pandoro with chocolate sauce and candied fruit.
If you want some ideas as to what to do with the leftover panettone, we’re doing something a little more English, and making a trifle with what’s left of ours.

Another option is to make a red currant sauce, melting some red currant gelatine in a saucepan and adding some orange juice.

Pour it over the cake and decorate with some currants and mint leaves.