Hmmm as the title suggests i need to make our Christmas cakes (yes cakes plural my lot love them) I have already made the ones for the client gifts and they will start making their way to the recipients in the coming days.
Feasting has always been a big part of every celebration throughout time - but just where did the idea of the Christmas Cake come from ? Read on......
Christmas cake is an English tradition that began as plum
porridge. People ate the porridge on Christmas Eve, using it to line their
stomachs after a day of fasting. Soon dried fruit, spices and honey were added
to the porridge mixture, and eventually it turned into Christmas pudding.
In the 16th century, oatmeal was removed from the original recipe,
and butter, wheat flour and eggs were added. These ingredients helped hold the
mixture together and in what resulted in a boiled plum cake. Richer families
that had ovens began making fruit cakes with marzipan, an almond sugar paste,
for Easter. For Christmas, they made a similar cake using seasonal dried fruit
and spices. The spices represented the exotic eastern spices brought by the
Wise Men. This cake became known as "Christmas cake."
Christmas cakes are made many different ways, but generally they
are variations on classic fruitcake. They can be light, dark, moist, dry,
heavy, spongy, leavened, unleavened, etc. They are made in many different
shapes, with frosting, glazing, a dusting of confectioner's sugar or plain.
The traditional Scottish Christmas cake, also known as the Whisky
Dundee, is very popular. It is a light crumbly cake with currants, raisins,
cherries and Scotch whisky. Other types of Christmas cakes include an apple
crème cake and a mincemeat cake. The apple crème cake is made with apples,
other fruit, raisins, eggs, cream cheese and whipping cream. The mincemeat cake
is made with traditional mincemeat or vegetarian mincemeat, flour, eggs, etc.
It can also be steamed as a Christmas pudding.
All Christmas cakes are made in advance. Many make them in November,
keeping the cake upside down in an airtight container. A small amount of
brandy, sherry or whisky is poured into holes in the cake every week until
Christmas. This process is called “feeding” the cake.
In Japan Christmas cake is a frosted sponge cake with
strawberries, chocolates or seasonal fruit. It was an expression that to call
women over the age of 25 "Christmas cake," meaning that they are out
of season, as the cake is after December 25th. Now the age is raised to 31,
linked to toshikoshi-soba, a noodle dish eaten on December 31st.
In the Philippines Christmas cake is a yellow pound cake with nuts
or the traditional British fruitcake. Both cakes are soaked in brandy or rum, a
palm sugar syrup and water. Rosewater or orange flower water is usually added.
The cakes have a long shelf life, usually lasting many months. Sometimes they
are eaten the following Easter or Christmas.
I love the smell of Christmas cakes baking and the plum pudding in the crockpot.......But if you don't have time to cook one support the Lions Club and buy one of theirs
Until tomorrow
Angela
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