Time to make your Christmas cake

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32789, 14 December 1971, Page 5

Time to make your Christmas cake

(By

CELIA TIMMS)

In addition to the bird and the ham, other traditional foods for Christmastide are of course the pudding, the cake, fruit mince pies—and, in Scottish households, shortbread and the Scots’ black bun.

In the days of our grandmothers all of these other foods were made about September, but although the flavour is certainly stronger and better when this is done, modern living seems to have relegated this custom, with many others, to the past. Nowadays very satisfactory cakes, puddings, and pies are made sometimes only days before the great day. If yours is among the “last-minute households,” I hope these recipes will be of some help.

The black bun is traditionally eaten after Hogmanay, that is, in the New Year, and admittedly this does need a little time to “cure.” Its keeping propensity is almost incredible—the following recipe will keep for at least a year, should you require it to last as long as this. It is a rich fruit mixture enclosed in a rich shortcrust. For an Bin to 9in bun you need:

For the Crust: jib flour 6oz butter { teaspoon salt i teaspoon baking powder 1 beaten egg

Method: Sift flour with salt and rub in butter. Stir in the baking powder and enough beaten egg to make a soft but not sticky dough. Cut pastry into three portions and roll out thinly sufficient to make a circle to fit in the bottom of the greased tin. The second portion should be rolled into a strip the depth of the tin and long enough to line the sides. The third is formed into a second circle to form the top. Grease the tin well before fitting the pastry lining.

For the Filling: Jib flour 2 teaspoons baking powder jib brown sugar 21bs mixed of sultanas, raisins, currants and choppel peel 4oz chopped almonds I teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

joz ground ginger loz cinnamon loz paprika 2 tablespoons Whisky Beaten egg

Method: Sift flour, salt and stir in sugar, and baking powder. Prepare fruit and mix with spices and nuts. Add the dry ingredients to the fruit mixture then add the whisky and the required amount of beaten egg to make a mixture that is just moist. Fill into the pastry lined tin, being careful to seal the edges of pastry in the base very well. Dampen the edges of the pastry at the top; smooth down the filling and place the lid on top, sealing edges well. Brush with a little egg and milk to glaze and make four holes right to the bottom of the tin with a skewer. Prick top with fork in pattern. Bake at 350 for about 3 hours or until when tested with skewer it comes out cleanly. Cover top with dampened greaseproof paper if it should brown too readily.