This year, the five older children teamed up and decorated the Christmas tree in the hallway. I was chuffed with their efforts, and for the first time I didn’t feel the need to re-do any of it. Plus, our dog didn’t run off with any of the decorations this year! 

While our children were preoccupied playing with their presents, my husband and I set about preparing a festive breakfast feast. A dozen large, organic eggs their rich yellow yolks bulging with goodness cooked perfectly on the barbecue. Alongside sizzled pink strips of bacon which attracted the attention of Tara our Springer Spaniel. She has figured out that best behaviour is always reward with a freshly cooked rasher of salty bacon. Our kind neighbours and friends Beverley and Sean gave us this aromatic Panettone Italian Christmas bread pictured above, which is lovely thickly sliced and spread with unsalted butter. The remaining pieces will be dunked into milk and cream and turned into French Toast for breakfast on Boxing Day. 

Australian grown cherries are superb at this time of year in Sydney and if my children were less keen on cramming them into their mouths, then I would have decorated the kitchen Christmas tree with them. Instead, I incorporated them into these golden Merry Christmas Cherry Crepes which the children drizzled with a little maple syrup before slicing and eating with joy. I adjusted a recipe previously published on my blog by adding more milk and a little vanilla extract. This made the mixture fragrant and finer in texture, resulting in a thinner crepe better suited to being folded with a favourite filling. 

Merry Christmas Cherry Crepes makes 16 – 18 large lacy pancakes (depending on the size of your frypan).

Ingredients
60 g unsalted butter melted
3 eggs (I used rich yellow organic farm eggs)
pinch of salt
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract2 and 1/4 cups milk (I use full cream milk)
800 grams of the best Australian grown cherries availablebutter for cooking or light tasting olive oil

Wash and pat dry the cherries. Using a sharp knife, slice 600 grams of cherries in half and pry out each pip. Do this first and set aside all the pitted cherries in a bowl until you need them. Leave the extra 200 grams of cherries whole for decorating the plate. 

Using a hand whisk, beat together the melted butter, eggs, vanilla until combined. 

Add the flour, salt and milk and whisk until smooth and completely lump-free. The batter should be runny, like thin pouring cream.

Heat up a large, non-stick frypan or even two which is what I did to cook the pancakes in record time. Quickly run a knob of butter over the base of your frypan/s, to give a very light coating. Alternatively you can dip a pastry brush into light olive oil and brush this over the pan.

Ladle a quantity of batter into the frypan which has been allowed to heat up over the stove top. Quickly swirl the batter around and over the base of the frypan and place back on the heat  The batter will turn opaque and start to slightly crisp up around the edges. This will take about 60 seconds. At this point flip the pancake by lifting the frypan and giving it a quick flick of the wrist. Alternatively you can run a heatproof spatula or egg slice under the pancake and flip it over.

Cook for another 60 seconds then slide onto a plate. Scatter a good tablespoon of pitted, sliced cherries across the top half of the crepe and then dust with icing sugar. Fold the crepe in half and then half again. Place on a plate with extra whole cherries and dust the lot with a little more icing sugar. Work your way patiently through the remaining batter until it has all been turned into thin, round golden sheets ready to be filled, folded and enjoyed.