Stir Up Sunday

Rosa_Damascena

I didn't get round to making any cake today. Instead I topped up with orange zest, juice and a few additional tots of whiskey.

YorksLass

Christmas pudding - no, we're always too full after Christmas dinner.  But if I see any small ones on sale after the festivities I'll buy a couple for during the year.  Sliced, lightly fried in butter, topped with a dollop of cream.

Christmas cake - yes.  Mine's a combination of the Bero recipes for Dundee cake and celebration cake, adjusted to how we like it.  That means no nuts or candied peel, the dried fruit is sultanas only with the raisins and currants replaced by glace cherries and dried apricots.  Fed with rum or brandy.  And it's nude - no marzipan or icing sugar on top,  

Wraithlady

I will probably make my cake this weekend - the recipe is Dundee cake from The Radiation Cookbook c1934, adapted slightly in terms of amount of dried fruit (and the whisky it's fed with). It makes a lovely light cake, which I prefer to traditional Christmas cake.

CapricornLass

I can't eat my Christmas pudding after a Christmas lunch either.  What we do is set the pudding up in the slow cooker when we get up in the morning, and leave it.  We usually eat it at tea-time, when there is a little more room in our tummies for it!

Rosa_Damascena

CapricornLass said:

I can't eat my Christmas pudding after a Christmas lunch either.  What we do is set the pudding up in the slow cooker when we get up in the morning, and leave it.  We usually eat it at tea-time, when there is a little more room in our tummies for it!

Its a bit weird but I don't really enjoy Christmas pudding, I think its over-rated. Yet I can eat Christmas cake until it comes out of my ears

MSE_James

Stir up Sunday is this weekend - anyone doing anything new / different with their Christmas pudding this year?

Photos of your festive creations especially welcome as ever

Gem-gem

I made two Christmas cakes in the summer when the fuel was cheaper - I follow Dehlia's recipe. I have been feeding them with brandy. I usually do one sherry and one brandy. Soon, I will cover them both in marzipan then nuts and finally an apricot glaze. We are not icing fans.
One cake - we keep. The other cake is quartered and shared amongst the family.

Christmas pud - will make next year. We managed to get heavily discounted puddings from Fortnum and Mason the past three years. We head to Regent Street in January to see what we can pick up. 

Rosa_Damascena

It's funny how tastes change....as a child chocolate cake was the most delicious thing on this planet, but my preference with fika during these winter afternoons is a slice of good fruit cake, laced with plenty of whiskey! Not sure when I'm going to find the time to make anything this year though.

thriftwizard

Cake and pudding were cooked & stashed a couple of weeks ago - I knew I was going to be very busy this week & weekend - though all the weekend bookings have actually been cancelled now, thanks to Storm Bert - so got ahead. Now all I need to do is remember to feed the cake from time to time until I ice & decorate. This year it was made, and will be fed, with some Cointreau that DS2's ex-GF left behind when she left him 5 years ago. As it's been cluttering up my drinks shelf ever since & she's never reclaimed it, and she lived here rent-free for several years, I reckon it's fair enough to use it up now! Seems I'm the only one who likes Cointreau, but I hardly ever drink spirits now. 

Cherryfudge

I made the cake today, and put a couple of dollops of the mixture in a mini cake tin to make a mini cake for a relative who we won't see at Christmas. I had to keep an eye on them both cooking - the mini one took about an hour and a half and the main one was about four and a half hours. Baked as one, they usually take at least five hours. The moral of this story is, give cake away and save fuel!

The recipe is one my Mum passed down about thirty five years ago, from Bero. I wish I'd read this thread first, though, as I would have wanted to add orange zest as @Rosa_Damascena does.