good cateress newsletter Dec ‘07


For me Christmas food is all about dried fruits and nuts being made into a variety of sweet Christmas staples. It has always been a huge surprise to me that in America no one likes dried fruit cakes and comedians make jokes about regifting fruit cake. But then fruit cakes here are not like the ones we make and eat in England, somehow they are too sweet and rather sad. Perhaps they are missing the key ingredients of brandy and spices?

In England we would start to buy the various dried fruits in October. Raisins, currants, sultanas - golden raisins, slivered almonds and mixed peel, all glistening together in a bowl, one Saturday morning when we got up. Mum would have mixed them with some spices and brandy the night before. Simon and I would look at each other with big eyes, knowing that it was Christmas pudding weekend and Christmas was definitely on its way.

Looking through both my mothers and grandmothers hand written recipe books, I see that each year the recipe would change slightly, maybe more currants, slightly different spices, porter rather than ale, and sometime the addition of glace cherries. There are also marks down the recipes in different colored inks, donating the year and that everything had been added and also the date it was made. The pudding itself always so dense, it is hard for me to say whether anyone other than the maker really knew the difference. A few years back, when I would make puddings here I used a recipe my mother sent me, and I believe it is the one from Christmas 1962, which became the real base for all future puddings.

The dried fruit mixture would sit and soak in a large bowl covered with a clean tea towel for 24 hours. Around tea time the mixture was put together, Suet, flour, brown sugar, breadcrumbs, orange and lemon zest, grated apple, black treacle, mixed spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger. Once the mixture was finally combined we would all make wishes and stir them in. When we were little dad would hold the spoon with us while we stirred to get the wish properly inside. Oh yes, and the sixpence's were added, to give good fortune who ever got one in their Christmas serving.

The following morning, the mixture having sat and relaxed overnight, it was ready to be ladled into various pudding basins, the largest being for Christmas Day and the others to be eaten at different times during the year. Many large saucepans with two inches of water inside would be set to boil, the pudding basins with their muslin turbans placed inside, simmering for hours slowly cooking. Once removed and cooled, they were placed on a cool dry shelf to await Christmas Day.

A few weeks later in November another bowl of similar fruit would again be soaking in brandy. This time it was the cake! For years I was not a real fan of traditional Christmas or wedding cake but sometime in the 70’s the raisins lost their seeds and it all became a lot more palatable. Mum always made a small Christmas cake with cherries, sultanas and almonds for me. We wished in this mixture too, and licked out the bowl! After the cake was baked in a slow oven and cooled it would be wrapped in foil after having more brandy drizzled into its bottom. Periodically, over the following weeks it would again be opened and a teaspoon of brandy drizzled. A week before Christmas it was opened and placed on a cake stand ready to be wrapped in marzipan and then royal icing.

Every family had its own favorite cake ornaments for the top of the cake, usually carefully saved and wrapped up each year. Ours was a snowman, fir trees in a couple of different sizes and of course, father Christmas. With a red frill for the side.

The excitement of Christmas was steadily mounting now. Usually on this same weekend the first mince pies were made. At Boarding school where we made our own mincemeat to compare the real thing to Robertsons shop bought, there was no comparison we all preferred Robertson. I still do, I also slice a little apple into the mincemeat.

Of course, the real old fashioned home made from pre Victorian times had meat in it, usually mutton or beef minced up with prunes and spices. Sweeney Todd, anyone? Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans banned Christmas celebrations and particularly mince pies, which were large and made to look like a manger so a baby Jesus figurine could rest on top. Charles II restored Christmas and mince pies flourished once more.

Mince pies, the sweet kind, are one of my all time favourites. I love them hot, having removed the lid I add a small teaspoon of brandy butter, replacing the lid, it is ready to be eaten. With a cup of tea, umm umm good! Brandy butter also helps the Christmas pudding go down. Why wouldn’t brandy butter be good with anything it is butter, fine sugar, brandy and nutmeg beaten together?

The pudding, for years one of my least favourite things, and then in my 20’s my taste changed. When I went to Anguilla in the 90’s with Clio, Isolde and family we always took a Christmas pudding with us. Eating it one night after dinner on the beach in March.

In 1961/2 when we drove to Majorca, to spend Christmas with June in her house, along came the cake, puddings and mincemeat in the car. Twenty years or so later when I would go to Tenerife to spend Christmas with June, all three Christmas favourites were in my luggage along with a small half of stilton. Aunt Janette now makes and saves me a small Christmas pudding to bring back for the next Christmas. Although, it is not one of Nums favourites.

A few years ago I stopped making a cake as I only ever ate a couple of slices, and no one that came to the house that I offered cake too would even try it, making faces and muttering about fruit cake. I do know that many of you remember when I made the Christmas gift baskets that were based on the ones my great grandmother made at Osborne House for Queen Victoria to give away. Marzipanning and icing 30 or 40 Christmas cakes. They all looked very festive sitting on a counter in their Christmas red ribbon jackets.

Christmas Eve in England; on a table near the fireplace, it will be a plate of mince pies and a small glass of sherry waiting for Santa Claus. On a nearby dining table will be a snowy white cake with perhaps a slice or two missing, exposing the glorious fruit cake beneath. In the kitchen a large steamer pan, ready for the Christmas pudding.

Enjoy your own Christmas and Holiday traditions.

Merry Christmas Happy Hannukah
Joyful, Happy New Year