Festive cooking
23 12 2006
Yes, we make our own Christmas pudding and cake - although the cake is actually kept for Hogmanay and any first footfooters game enough to call. I’ve also made a batch of old spice biscuits and will use the remaining currants, raisins and other ingredients for a few other treats with festive feel.
But, in making ours, I started wondering how many other people still make their own puddings, cakes and festive treats. I know Mel over at bean-sprouts does, but who else likes to make their own?
Merry Christmas ,Stonehead,
Our pudding has carrots and potatoes as well as ingredients similar
to yours … it wouldn’t be Christmas without it . Your cake looks like a
treat , too .
We have carrots in ours too, but not potatoes. Usually, we have cluty dumpling (the Scottish version of pudding), but decided to go for a rich pudding this year. It makes a nice change.
The cake, like the pudding, is from Mary Norwak’s The Farmhouse Kitchen and is extremely rich and moist.
I was going to do roast chicken for the boys and I, fish or a vegetable roast for the Other Half, and roast vegetables. But I’m now toying with the idea of pot roast chicken with herb dumplings as my Mum sent us a Christmas hamper with a bottle of white wine that I could use in the sauce…
It’s the same with the pudding. What to serve with it - home-made Cumberland rum butter? Or home-made egg custard?
Decisions, decisions!
This is the first year that I haven’t made my own Christmas cake, just never had the time! I have never tried to make my own Christmas pud though…so next year I intend to make both! Your cake looks really scrummy….yum! wish I’d made one now
I make my own cake, mince pies and biscuits, usually sausage rolls and tarts and so on. but this year is my first for cooking the proper dinner, so I’m a little nervous……
The trick is to do as much in advance as possible, be modest in your ambitions and juggle the timing so that everything is ready at the same time. The timing is the most difficult, but the other two will help achieve that.
I took your advice Chef Stoney, however, maybe *you* can explain to me how my 9lb turkey took 1hr 5 minutes to cook to perfection, when it should have taken nearly 3 hours.
However, i just wrapped it in foil and cooked everything else ready for 1pm lunch, and it was good!
It was a stressless day, aside from the fact that my turkey was ready before time! (by 2 hours!)
Clootie dumpling… ha ha, memories. I was holidaying at Crask of Aigus near Inverness some years ago and we had lunch in a lovely pub nearby. The barman was getting fed up with me asking what the traditional dishes were, and his cat was getting fed up with me sitting in his seat. The last straw was when I asked what the Clootie Dumpling was. The barman rolled his eyes and said with a sigh “It is a dumpling, wrapped in a clootie”.
This year we’ve done real meat mince pies, a very solid fruit and nut cake, and a marshpane (Elizabethan recipe for a semi-sweet almond shortbready-type thing), always a favourite at this time of year. Think I’ll do our own pud next year though - we bought one this year and it was… adequate. If going downhill with a following wind.