What to eat with milk wine

Sri Lankan Christmas cake is the classic partner. Made with semolina, butter, eggs, chopped preserves such as pumpkin, ginger and chow chow, cashews and generous spice, it is dense, dark and rich. It is cut into small squares and wrapped.

The cake and milk wine share cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and citrus, so they complement each other. The warm, clean milk wine refreshes the palate between bites of rich cake.

Offer one square of cake with each small glass, as Sri Lankan hosts do.

A good Christmas cake is moist and sticky but holds its shape when cut. The best ones are made weeks ahead and rested, like the milk wine, so both reach the tray at their peak together.

Love cake is a fragrant Sri Lankan cake made with semolina, cashews, sugar, eggs and butter, flavoured with rose water, honey, cardamom and nutmeg. It is lighter and more aromatic than Christmas cake and pairs beautifully with milk wine.

Breudher is a Dutch-origin yeast cake, baked in a fluted mould, rich with butter and raisins. Burgher families serve it sliced and buttered, often with a Dutch-style cheese, at Christmas and especially New Year. A small glass of milk wine alongside is a family tradition.

Both are sold by bakeries and home bakers in December.

Love cake is sometimes called the Burghers' most famous cake, and every family has its own version. Its crisp top and soft, chewy centre make it a different experience from Christmas cake, and some guests prefer it with milk wine.

The Christmas tray often includes sweets alongside the cakes. Milk toffee, made from condensed milk, sugar and butter and cut into squares, is rich and fudge-like. Coconut rock is a crumbly coconut sweet. Kokis are crisp, lacy deep-fried biscuits.

These sweets go well with milk wine because they are rich and sweet but not heavily spiced, letting the milk wine's flavours show.

Dodol, a dark, sticky sweet of coconut milk, jaggery and rice flour, and kalu dodol are also served in some homes.

Buying a selection of sweets at a December church fair is the easiest way to try them all. Ask the stallholders which ones they serve with milk wine at home; the answers will differ, which is part of the fun.

Mild cheese is a good savoury match, especially with breudher. The salt and creaminess of the cheese contrast with the sweet, spiced milk wine.

Some hosts serve short eats, such as cutlets, patties and rolls, at Christmas. These go better with tea, beer or a soft drink, but a small glass of milk wine after a mild short eat works.

Avoid very spicy food, such as hot curries or chilli sambols, with milk wine. The heat clashes with the sweetness and alcohol.

Visitors who take milk wine home can pair it with British Christmas cake, fruit cake, Christmas pudding, mince pies or stollen. All share dried fruit and spice.

Lankan Stays & Trails guests sometimes take home a box of Sri Lankan Christmas cake with their milk wine, for the full experience.

A mild cheese board, with dried fruit and nuts, also suits milk wine after dinner.

Serve milk wine at room temperature in small liqueur glasses of about 30 to 40 ml, with a small square of cake or a few sweets on a plate.

Offer it to guests as they arrive, or after a meal.

Have soft drinks or ginger wine on hand for children and non-drinkers.