Piñatas finished, and making tamales.

We worked long into the night finishing the Piñatas and the tamales for the posada party.

Our good friends Tom and Alfa came round, and helped us - then (finally - after getting a bit lost) Michaela arrived to lend a hand too. The 5 of us worked hard - mixing the dough, making the mole & salsa roja, constructing the tamales and finally getting them cooked.

But even after everytone left, Jacqui and I stayed up, finishing the tamales and putting finishing touches to the Piñatas. While waiting for the tamales to finish, I also made several batches of Fairy Cakes (or cup cakes - same thing I reckon). Hard work, but absolutely worth it.

Here's some photos of the preparation. I'll do another post after this one with some images from the posada proper.

The Piñata; complete. Isn't it beautiful?

Tom getting his hands messy - making the tamale goo (thanks tom!)

Mole - delicious chocolate & chilli sauce. Goes in the tamale.

These are the corn husks. Yes, in a laundry basket :)

Combine everything with some chicken, wrap and you'll have some of these little beauties.

The tamales are then steamed in the biggest steamer we have - actually an inducstrial sized pot with a veggie steam in the bottom.

It took two batches to cook them all, but by 6am, they were finally cooked. Yes : I said 6am.

Don't believe me? Check out the sunrise on Saturday morning:

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