Christmas Cake/Pudding/Ham bake/steam/roast-a-long 2023 edition - The Bear and Badger

davyK

My gut is tight as a drum after cake n cheese followed by some heated up christmas pudding.

groans

Questor

Fruit cake is best with a really good Wensleydale IMO - not the cheese with fruit in though, that's an abomination.

davyK

Another year, another pudding.

Stir up Sunday is 21st November this year readers.

I'm doing a pudding but I'm forgoing a cake as I'm on a weight loss drive this year meaning Christmas is to be reigned back a bit (a big brandy laced fruit cake just takes too long to munch through since the daughters won't eat it and we will be sans visitors).

Thinking about a Bundt cake or a Yule log though.

g.man

YAY!

Time_on_my_hands

This was my first year making a pudding - my mum usually makes one but I won't be able to collect it this year.
Wierd having that Christmas pud smell in October.

b0r1s

I don’t do Christmas pud but I’ll be making a mean chocolate cake. And a ham. I fucking love ham at Christmas with pickles.

Roujin

YAS! Top crimbo thread is back, IT'S BAKE ALONG, BAYBEE!

davyK

Time_on_my_hands wrote:

This was my first year making a pudding - my mum usually makes one but I won't be able to collect it this year. Wierd having that Christmas pud smell in October.

I do mine in November on mixup Sunday.

I've been thinking about laying one down earlier. Some do them a year in advance but I'd want to be sure to do that right. I kind of like marking it in late November though - part of the build up and all that.

SpaceGazelle

One of my fave threads, this.

Time_on_my_hands

davyK wrote:

Time_on_my_hands wrote:

.

I do mine in November on mixup Sunday.

I've been thinking about laying one down earlier. Some do them a year in advance but I'd want to be sure to do that right. I kind of like marking it in late November though - part of the build up and all that.

Not sure how much difference it makes doing it earlier, but I had a whole free day during half term week where I could let the mixture soak and allow for the ludicrous steaming time.

davyK

Nice.

I'm sticking with the pecan and cherry topped pudding I've done these last 2 years. The Nigella Lawson recipe is an excellent alternative - did that one a couple of times too.

Dubs

Season's greetings, I also had time on my hands so I did this fig, orange and cranberry pudding. That Good Housekeeping list has served me well.
Got Delia's Creole cake cooked yesterday. It's basically a traditional cake but a bit boozier and spicier. Had to boil the fruit in rum, brandy, port, more brandy (I was too lazy to find the cherry kind) and Angostura bitters before steeping it for a week. Managed not to burn the edges, thank you baby Jesus.

Time_on_my_hands

Dubs wrote:

Season's greetings, I also had time on my hands so I did this fig, orange and cranberry pudding. That Good Housekeeping list has served me well.
Got Delia's Creole cake cooked yesterday. It's basically a traditional cake but a bit boozier and spicier. Had to boil the fruit in rum, brandy, port, more brandy (I was too lazy to find the cherry kind) and Angostura bitters before steeping it for a week. Managed not to burn the edges, thank you baby Jesus.

Looks nice - I'd never considered using orange liqueur for the pudding so I'll definitely try this next year. I did have pears left over from the tree from summer but I'm adding these to the mince pie filling. My pudding is the Delia one but with less added sugar (flavour rather than health reasons).

davyK

Some pro-tier efforts already under way

davyK

Stir up Sunday is next week.

Ingredients in - including the Ximinex sherry. Will be steeping the fruit in that Saturday.

g.man

Yum.

davyK

Stir-up Sunday readers.

Had the dried fruit (cherries,apricots,raisins and sultanas) soaking overnight in juice of half an orange and the old Ximenez sherry.

Have it all mixed up with flour, butter, an egg, cinnamon and mixed spice in the pudding bowl.

Have a pecan and cherry topping with golden syrup and whiskey - that gets boiled up and goes into the bowl first. Then the main pudding mixture goes in - the theory being you will get a pecan and cherry topping when it's comes out of the bowl Has worked these last couple of times - so fingers crossed. You place a circle of baking paper in first so that the topping doesn't stick to the bottom of the bowl. Then butter the side of the bowl so that the main body of the pudding will exit gracefully on the day.

The smell is glorious. Going to steam it later (4hrs) after dinner.

Will plonk a picture of it here before steaming in the bowl later.

g.man

God that must smell incredible!

GooberTheHat

I'm hopefully having Christmas at the in-laws, so I'm not making much of anything this year, but I will probably do a ham for Christmas eve. I just need to decide what recipe I'll use. I'm thinking a spicy jerk but might go traditional Christmas flavours.

Unlikely

Gremill wrote:

Tried my hand a gluten free mince pies today - it's the first time I've made any kind of pastry. I made 20 and 17 survived - the three that never made it out of the tray in one piece were laid to rest in my gob. Bloody hell, I'd forgotten how orgasmic mince pies straight from the oven are.

Can you post the recipe for this, Grem?

Unlikely

Also, my daughter is wheat, nut, soya and dairy free (egg is currently being trialed) so if anyone has any Christmas cake/treat recipes that exclude all those things and somehow both work and don't taste vile I'd be very grateful.

davyK

Pudding bubbling away now - 1.5 hours to go.

There's isn't actually that much of a smell as it's in a lidded pudding bowl wrapped in foil. You place that in a large pot sitting on an inverted saucer so it isn't sitting on the arse of the pot. Then you fill it with boiling water to half way up and just have it simmer away - checking the water level every so often so it doesn't boil dry. Old school is to boil it in a cloth - I suspect that would generate a great smell about the house.

Benefitted from the smell more when mixing it up. Christmas definitely on the way.

Daughter 2 announced she was giving up meat a few months ago. Has fish occasionally such as a tuna steak substituted for the Sunday roast. She is trying to use this as a stepping stone to no meat at all. So not sure what to do this year for her. Salmon may be a stand in for her or similar if she is still pescatarian by then...

davyK

Meat-wise I'd love to try a goose one year but Wifey simply will not have that. She won't even have duck.

g.man

Just give her a terrine of Brussels sprouts.

davyK

Heh.. Actually M&S have some good looking veggie stuff for Christmas. What makes her awkward though is that she isn't fond of mushrooms and nuts - which are staples of a lot of recipes.

davyK

4hrs of steaming done.

dirty!!

davyK

So it's into storage now until the big day. Then it will get another hour and a half of steaming.

g.man

Absolute filth!

yourfavouriteuncle

My tree is up, the lights are on and the first batch of mincers are the best I’ve ever made. It’s early but fuck it. Kids love it too.

davyK

Outside lights up last night.

We put up 3 trees. Tree no.1 is up today. It's the big gaudy one with decorations from places like Las Vegas and shit our daughters made in primary school. It's a bit early as you say - we usually wait until the first weekend in December - but the houses around us made their move during the week as they have younger kids. Wifey bought it 25 years ago and it's starting to look its age but its part of the charm.

We don't put our big one in the window - have it just less than half way into the depth of the room which is two knocked into one so is a decent size. The tree is visible from outside as we have bay windows.We live in a double fronted house so we put a smaller one in the other front room window. It's a bit more tasteful - just silver decorations on it. Our third is the kitchen/dining area at the back of the house. Its one of those pencil jobs and we just put yellow and red decoration on that one.

Those trees will be put up as the week progresses. We have a pile of tat and shit that adorns everywhere downstairs generally - that will go up over the coming week. Each year we seem to pick up more and more crap - really need to thin it out.

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