Christmas is a festival which is celebrated in order to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. People enjoy this day by praying at the church and then cutting a cake and celebrating with their family and friends. This is a festival mainly celebrated by the people, who believe inn Christian religion.
X mas cake is also an English tradition and it all began with plum porridge. Previously, people used to eat the porridge on the evening of Christmas day after fasting the whole day before. Then things started adding to it. Things like spices dried fruits and honey were also added in the mixture of the porridge, and so from just plum porridge, it became an elaborate Christmas pudding.
During the 16th century in proper plum porridge, oatmeal was removed as an ingredient and in place of that eggs, butter and wheat flour were added. By using these ingredients, the mixture became more firm and as a result the boiled plum cake tasted even better than the porridge. But these plum cakes were for the common people. Rich people used to bake a cake with more ingredients. They used ovens for baking cakes and also used sugar pastes, almonds, dry fruits and marzipan as ingredients for the cake. Sometimes, they also used spices to make it taste better. This cake later came to be known as the Christmas cake.
How these cakes are baked?
These cakes are baked in various ways, but mostly these Christmas cakes are different variations of classic fruit cakes. But yes, they can be dry cakes, moist cakes, light cakes, spongy cakes and heavy cakes. The Christmas cake can have different shapes, and they can also have frostings or can just be a plain cake. There are some popular Christmas cakes as well like Whiskey Dundee cakes and Scottish Christmas cake. These cakes are made with cherries, currants, raisins and Scotch whiskey. There are other types of Christmas cakes baked as well; they are known as Mincemeat cakes and Apple crème cake. The Apple crème cake is mainly made of raisins, eggs, apples, whipped cream and crème cheese. On the other hand, the mincemeat cake is made from flours, mincemeats and eggs. It can also be steamed and can be eaten as Christmas pudding.
How to preserve a cake
Most of the Christmas cakes are baked during the month of November and then they are kept in an air tight container in an upside down manner. A very small amount of whiskey or brandy is poured on the cake making holes in the body of the cake every week till Christmas arrives. This is a process popularly known as ‘feeding the cake.’
In Japan, Christmas cake is again frosted in a manner where ingredients like seasonal fruits, strawberries and chocolates are used. Philippines make a yellow pound cake as Christmas cake and then soak it in brandy or rum or in palm sugar syrup to make it tasty.
Christmas cake is thus made in various forms and shapes in different countries.