Geneabloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.
The taste and smell of fruitcake bring Christmas to mind and can conjure up memories of Christmas past. Fruitcake and plum pudding are synonymous in our family. It was not Christmas without fruitcake and plum pudding. It was a Christmas tradition to make them every year.
The pudding and cake were made in November. It was traditional for each of us to stir the pudding mixture and make a wish. Coins were put in the pudding and brought prosperity to those who found them. Then we had to remember to ‘feed’ the cakes and puddings in the weeks up to Christmas. Feeding meant pouring liquor over the top to help keep them moist.
The pudding was always brought into the dining room with pomp and circumstance. The lights were turned off, the pudding lit with flaming brandy or whiskey and decorated with holly from the garden. Mum would then lift it to the air and carry it into the room to claps and cheers.
Over the years I have experimented with making different kinds of plum puddings and fruitcakes. Even decorating the fruitcakes with marzipan, rolled fondant and sometimes with glacé fruit.
In December 2010 CBS Sunday Morning did a great piece on plum pudding.
I still enjoy a piece of fruitcake with a cup of tea during the holiday season.
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