Christmas cake
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christmas cake is a type of fruitcake served at Christmas time in the UK, Ireland and many Commonwealth countries.
A Christmas cake may be light or dark, crumbly-moist to sticky-wet, spongy to heavy, leavened or unleavened, shaped round, square or oblong as whole cakes, fairy cakes, or petit fours, with marzipan, icing, glazing, dusting with confectioner's sugar, or plain, etc.
A particular favourite of many is the traditional Scottish Christmas cake, the Whisky Dundee. As the name implies, the cake originated in Dundee and is made with Scotch whisky. It is a light and crumbly cake, and light on fruit and candied peel—only currants, raisins, sultanas and cherries. This Christmas cake is particularly good for people who don't like very rich and moist cakes. As with all fruitcakes, the almonds (or other nuts) can be omitted by people who don't like them.
At the other end of the Christmas cake continuum, the apple creme Christmas cake is a rich mix of finely sliced apples, raisins and other fruit, with eggs, cream cheese, and heavy whipping cream.
In the middle of the spectrum is the mincemeat Christmas cake, which is simply any traditional or vegetarian mincemeat mixed with flour, eggs, etc., to transform it into a cake batter; or it can also be steamed as a Christmas pudding.
Coins were also occasionally added to Christmas Cakes as well as Christmas Puddings as good luck Touch Pieces. The usual choices were silver 3d piece, or sixpences, sometimes wrapped in grease proof paper packages.
In Northern England, Christmas cake is often eaten with cheese, such as Wensleydale.
[edit] Christmas cake in other countries
In Japan, Christmas cake, traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve, is simply a sponge cake, frosted with whipped cream, decorated with strawberries, and usually topped with Christmas chocolates or other seasonal fruit. In the Philippines, Christmas cakes are a bright rich yellow pound cakes with macerated nuts or fruitcakes of the British fashion. Either way, both are soaked in copious amounts of brandy or rum mixed with a simple syrup of palm sugar and water. Traditionally, civet or ambergris musk flavoring is added, but rosewater or orange flower water is more common now, as civet musk and ambergris have become very expensive[citation needed]. These liquor-laden cakes can usually stay fresh for many months provided it is handled and made properly. Because of its long shelf life, it is a very popular gift for Christmas and one cake made the previous year is sometimes saved for the next Christmas to symbolize union with "Christmases past", or may be consumed for the following Easter[citation needed].
