The Christmas cake that we know and love today can be dated back to two customs which merged into one in around 1870.

The two customs where the eating of a plum porridge on Christmas Eve, and a fine cake. The cake would only be made by richer families. This is because not all homes would have had ovens during that time.

The porridge was eaten after a day's fasting, which people would take part in on Christmas Eve. Therefore this porridge was made to line the stomach. To make the porridge a little bit special for the occasion people started to add dried fruits, honey and spices to it. Over time people added more and more fruit to the mixture and it turned into a pudding. This is the Christmas pudding¹ we eat today.

During the 16th century it became the norm to add butter and to replace the oatmeal with wheat flour and eggs to hold it together better. This was a boiled plum cake. However again only the richer families had the oven to cook the cake in. In these richer families, people began making cakes for Easter, made with fruits and covered with marzipan. They then started cooking a similar cake for Christmas using spices and dried fruits of the season.

Although the plum cake was eaten at Christmas, the cake covered with marzipan was not. The cake was in fact saved for the Twelfth Night Feast, decorated with sugar and became known as Twelfth Night Cake. Twelfth Night is traditionally the last day of Christmas (5th January).

One of the traditions that grew out of the Twelfth Night Feast was to bake a dried bean in one half ot the cake and a dried pea in the other. As people arrived for the feast they would be given a slice of the cake, ladies from the left, gentlemen from the right. The gentleman who got the bean would become king of Revels for the night and the lady who got the pea would be his queen.

A simple fruit cake was made by poorer families, but again this would contain a bean and was given out to the guests, however the person who found this bean would be guardian angel to the family for a year.

Because of the Reformation of the church, by the Puritans, Twelfth Night became a time of mischief, and was eventually banned. The Puritans did not believe in any type of celebrations at all.

Twelfth Night began to regain popularity in the late 1700's until approximately 1834, when the focus started to shift to the Christmas festivities. Over the years people became less inclinded to celebrate Twelfth Night.

This left the bakers who made the cakes with boxes full of decorations for the cakes. So that they would not lose money they began to make the fruit cakes again, but now they decorated them with winter snow scenes. They then sold them for Christmas parties. Here is our modern day Christmas cake.

There are many different types of Christmas cake made today, if you don't like icing you may like to try the Scottish Dundee cake, but be warned it is made with Whisky. It's quite light on fruit and is made with candied peel, currants, raisins, and cherries. If you don't like Whisky you could use Brandy instead.

Many people like to make their cake in November. This is so they can 'feed' the cake. The cake is kept upside down in an airtight container, holes are made in the cake by using a skewer and then a small amount of brandy, sherry or whisky is then poured onto the cake, probably once a week, during the run up to Christmas.

Ingredients

• 12oz Currants
• 12ozs Golden raisins
• 8oz Raisins
• 8oz Brown sugar
• 8oz Butter or Margarine
• 10oz Flour
• 4oz Mixed peel
• Glace cherries
• ½ Lemon - grated rind
• Orange - grated rind
• 2 oz Chopped almonds
• 1-½ tsp mixed spice
• 1 tbs Black treacle (dark Molasses)
• Pinch salt
• 5 Eggs
• Milk if required

Method

Cream together the butter and sugar, salt, mixed spice, treacle, add eggs one at a time. Stir in the fruit and flour in alternate batches until thoroughly mixed.

Use a metal pan about 10" wide x 5" or six inch high, one with a loose bottom is best. Line sides and bottom of pan with wax paper allowing the paper to extend up over the sides by an inch.

Put in round pan and bake at 325°F for 1 hour and turn down to 300°F and continue cooking for at least 2 hours and then check for doneness by inserting a thin instrument until it comes out clean.

Store upside-down (you put the icing on the bottom and sides) and leave for about 2 weeks in an airtight tin. Poke holes a few inches down into bottom of cake and pour over sherry or brandy. Repeat this procedure two or three times over a two day period. Keep stored in airtight tin. Roll out the marzipan and stick to sides and bottom of cake with melted apricot jam. Leave a few days to dry and ice with the royal icing.

Ingredients

• 8oz Flour
• 6 oz Butter
• 5oz Caster/granulated sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 1oz Blanched almonds
• 1½oz mixed peel
• 6oz each of currants, raisins, sultanas (seedless white raisins)
• Grated rind and juice of lemon
• 1 level teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons whisky
• 2 tablespoons boiled milk and 1 tablespoon sugar

Method

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl. When it is white and creamy, slowly add the four eggs (one at a time), plus a spoonful of flour with each beating well all the time. Stir in the nuts and fruits. Add the rest of the flour, (sifted with the baking powder) and the whisky. Make sure the mixture is stirred well - right to the foot of the bowl. If it is too stiff, add a little milk.

Place mixture in an 8-inch greased and lined cake tin. Flatten the top with hands which are slightly wet. Cover with foil or greaseproof paper and bake at 325°F (170°C) or gas mark 3 for two hours. Halfway through, take off the foil and arrange the split almonds in concentric circles on the top of the cake. Check the cake with a skewer towards the end of cooking - if it is still wet in the middle, put it back for more cooking! 5/10 minutes before cooking is finished, brush the top with the sweetened milk to create a dry glaze. Keep in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out on a wired tray. Store in an airtight container.

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Cal Fortuneswell

22.12.05 Front Page

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