Mice for Christmas! (Or Other Holidays)

[Shamed confession]

I've been looking at Christmas stuff... already. 

It's a secret pleasure -- like eating Tostitos in bed while reading. 
                                     Or using your fingers to clean out the mixing bowl, licking as you go.
                                     Or *shock* double-dipping that potato chip. Oh, the shame.

I have a whole stack of holiday recipes to think about. But this item's currently top of the list:

MICE.

My British books keep talking about 'sugar mice' in Christmas stockings. Lo and behold, there are several different versions to choose from!

This version seems to be the traditional one:

Sugar Mice

Basically, they're confectioner's (powdered) sugar frosting, firmed up. My books mention string tails -- but these have licorice ones, instead. 

Hmmm.   (Go here for specifics -- thanks, Thinly Spread.)

Version #2, originally from Food.com, uses regular sugar. It's from Mandy Shea-Eason, who spent several years in Great Britain. These mousies do have string tails, for a specific reason:

"The mice are a British tradition and can be found in high end candy shops throughout the season," she says. "Traditionally, when sugar was a luxury, one was left in a child's stocking with fruit, nuts, and small toys to make up the entirety of their Christmas haul. British children, and adults, delight in eating them much like you would feed the poor mice to a snake...dangling it by its tail."




Ewww.

According to Yahoo, sugar mice (and pigs, too) were hung on the Christmas tree as substitutes for  real animal sacrifices that used to accompany the midwinter German Wotan feast.

Yep, kill a dog for Christmas. Double Ewww. Who cares about pigs and mice, though -- I'm a farmer's daughter. We butchered hogs for winter meat all the time. In fact, farm-fed pork is some of the tastiest, healthiest meat out there. You already know my opinion about mice.

 The Deutscher Wotan celebration apparently is also the source of those wonderful Austrian and German molded lebkuchen and speculaas cookies for sale at Christkindlesmarkts. held all over the world.  I'm hoping these didn't symbolically stand in for human sacrifices too, since the original cookies often depicted pairs of lovers.( Yes, I know about the bog bodies and Stonehenge's apparent sacrifices. Let me think naively about this, just a little longer.)

image from Holidays to Europe.com.au -- go here for more. 

Back to the subject. Could sugar mice be made with marzipan (almond paste), instead? 

The answer is: YES!


Marzipan Sugar Mice

Pretty Cake Machine's recipe is here. I'm not sure I can be this artistic, but I do like the pink blush on the mousies' ears and cheeks -- and those beady black eyes. 

Then I found:
 
Chocolate-covered cherry mice.

Simple. Easy. Cute. Couldn't you see these lounging around the bottom of a cake plate, or poking their noses into a parfait? And all you basically need are maraschino cherries with stems, plus chocolate kisses. And some chocolate chips to melt. (I think I'll add marshmallows to make the bodies a little longer, too.)

And if you're thinking, "Gee, these would be great  for Halloween, as well" -- 
              You're right.

Directions are here. Have fun.   (Thanks, Just A Pinch Recipes... and everyone else.)

P.S. You can order your mice readymade, as well... turns out that Haribo stocks 'sweet mice' -- produced in, naturlich, Germany.