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Christmas Cake

9/1/2019

3 Comments

 
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​We receive an invitation to morning tea in the new year, ostensibly to help clear some left-overs, in particular the Christmas cake.  Seven of us sit around a table set with Shelley teacups, plates and a glass of domestic bubbles. Bliss.
Laura has been making this recipe for years. It was possibly the best I’ve ever had – texture, colour, flavour. Following modern trends, it was not covered in marzipan or snow-like icing, which I miss.

I have a special bond with celebratory fruit cakes. On coming to England to marry my father, Maman took herself off to cookery classes.  She was a top cook, from a family of good cooks, but she felt her repertoire lacked three dishes – Yorkshire pudding, Christmas cake and Christmas pudding. (I think there were some soused herrings in there somewhere, too.)
She rightly thought the French Bûche de Noël lacked gravitas and substance.  She was so right.
 
How can anyone not like Christmas cake? (I mean of course a well-made one, not pale and doughy.) It has tradition, staying power, colour and wholesome dried fruit.  And I’ll say it, anyone who does not like marzipan loses my respect.
 
When doing weddings at the restaurant I couldn’t understand why the fruitcake was passed over for the dreaded chocolate mud cake. (Urrrgh!)
 
As Pauline Hansen would say, “Please explain”.  Please tell me why the fruit cake has lost favour.

Rescue the fruit cake?   Comment below.

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3 Comments
Kym
9/1/2019 06:24:17 pm

I too love Christmas cake. I buy the essential ingredients from Charlseworth Nuts. They have in a bundle the required amount of almonds, glaced ginger, cherries etc. and then I don’t have to buy individual packets from the supermarket in the sizes they have packaged up. I make this a month before Christmas so it has time to mature. I decorate it with an icing made from almond meal and port (as per Margret Fulton - bless her) Yummy. Cath, I will reserve a piece for you and bring it over when I return the DVD.
Why has Christmas cake gone out of favour? Not sure. Maybe the modern generation who want it NOW rush in and buy a Big Sister cake from Coles and are subsequently disappointed.

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Cath link
9/1/2019 06:54:08 pm

Yes, wanting it now is a problem but I think you are right about being turned off by Big Sister cake. Ticks every box in the "what not to do category" - poor ingredients, more cake than fruit, poor texture. I look forward to my slice - and how good that it keeps!

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Fiona watson
10/1/2019 12:02:04 pm

Xmas ....... my mother makes me a xmas cake and pudding every year. They are superb ( old Scottish recipes from my grandmother ) The best I have ever tasted and many would agree . It is amazing to me how so many people have never had pudding and brandy sauce . Hopefully I will continue on, my family love it.

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