Stir mincemeat (to taste) into your favourite vanilla ice cream mix and freeze as usual. (You do realise you will have to make another batch, don't you?) It's also nice spread onto shortbread base and topped with a sponge layer and baked as a tray bake. Or, use in a fruit cake, see below, delicious! Ingredients 4 oz margarine or soft butter, 2 tbsp milk, 4 oz brown sugar, 3 large eggs, 12 oz mincemeat (the sweet kind, not actually meat!), 7 oz self raising flour Method Mix together with a fork, in a large bowl Line an 8 inch round tin with baking paper * Put mix in tin and level Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 min at 160 c, then at 150 c for about 1 1/4 hours, or until cake is firm in the centre. Cool in tin with a clean damp tea towel over the top To line a tin the easy way, take a sheet of baking paper large enough to line in one piece. Screw it up, then open it, repeat. Press into tin. Trim away excess AFTER cake mix is in the tin. How easy is that? Being a Brit myself (although living in Spain), I shall be making my own mince pies but I've no idea why they are called pies in the UK rather than tarts. For the squeamish, it is possible to use vegetable suet, no problem. The British do have lard by the way but mostly only used in roasting potatoes or as a quarter of the fat used in pastry recipes. It is supposed to have a different melting temperature and makes the pastry more flaky. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us! - kelsey

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