Christmas Cake and Christmas Pudding

Posted on 4 December 2024 by Linda Peek

Christmas cakes and puddings are best made in November or even earlier, so they have time to mature. But don’t worry if you haven’t made yours yet, there’s still time. Anything home-made always tastes so much better than the bought variety. Better late than never.

I make them on the same day, so I can weigh out the fruit and nuts into two big bowls, one for each recipe, which saves time. After the initial steaming, the puddings will keep in the fridge for a year or more.

Christmas cakes and puddings make wonderful gifts, especially for elderly people living on their own. The pudding recipe makes 3 or 4, depending on the size, so if you just want to make one large pudding halve the ingredients. I have several Christmas pudding bowls in various sizes, which I collect in Op shops.

I’ve been making these old family recipes since I was at school. The original versions came from my paternal grandmother, Nana Hutchinson who was born in Falkirk, Scotland. They’ve evolved over the years with slight modifications. I now use melted butter instead of the traditional suet in the pudding mixture, but you can use suet if you prefer. Covering the cake with marzipan and then white royal icing to look like snow was all part of the tradition when I was growing up in England. Most of my family don’t like marzipan and we’re all trying to cut down on sugar, so nowadays I cover the top with nuts instead.

I’ve also started using the “all in one” method for the cake which uses melted butter. When we made Christmas cakes at school, in my Home Economics clases, creaming the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon took forever. The teacher whose name was Mrs Wood came round to inspect and decide whether or not it was time to start adding the eggs. No electric mixers back then, so by the time you got the tick of approval you felt as if your arm was about to drop off. The “all in one” method is so much quicker and works well.

Feel free to substitute – dried apricots instead of the cherries or mixed peel; walnuts, macadamias or pecans instead of the almonds; whisky instead of the rum or brandy. Making little changes will allow you to make the recipe your own, to hand down to your grandchildren. I don’t use glace cherries any more. Instead I buy dried cherries from a Middle Eastern grocer. They work well and make a delicious snack or addition to salads.

Christmas Cake

250g butter, melted
250g brown sugar
6 large eggs, beaten with a fork
300g plain flour
2 Tbs black treacle
450g currants
300g sultanas
175g raisins
125g dried cherries
125g slivered almonds
125g mixed peel (optional)
1 orange (zest and juice)
4 Tbs Brandy or dark Rum
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground nutmeg
75g ground almonds
To decorate the top:
200g whole almonds (blanched) or hazelnuts, shelled, roasted and
skins rubbed off, pecans or macadamias (shown in the photo)

Soak fruit and nuts in brandy or rum overnight, or if you’re in a hurry, for at least an hour. Line a 25cm round or square cake tin with a double layer of baking paper. Place the tin on a baking sheet on which you have placed 4 thicknesses of newspaper. Wrap a band of newspaper or brown paper of the same thickness around the outside of the tin, using a stapler to join the ends. Preheat oven to 150°C. If you have the option to use your oven in conventional mode, without the fan, the results will be better. If you have to use the fan the cake will cook more quickly than without.

Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly, then spoon into tin and smooth the top. Cover the surface evenly with whole blanched almonds, hazelnuts or macadamias, pressing them in a bit with your hand. Bake for between 1¾ and 2¼ hours on the middle shelf of the oven. Test with a toothpick after an hour and a half. If the top gets too brown before the middle is ready, place some foil loosely over the top of the cake to stop the nuts from burning. When it’s ready the top of the cake will have an even colour, feel firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean.

Cool thoroughly then store in an airtight tin in a cool, dark place. If liked, halfway through storage time pierce all over the top with a skewer and drizzle with a little extra brandy or rum which will soak in.

Keeps for several months in a sealed tin. If you live in a warm humid climate keep it in the fridge.

To serve, tie a wide red ribbon around the outside of the cake and decorate the top with some holly leaves and berries – real or plastic!

Christmas Pudding

125g currants
200g dried figs (remove stalks) or pitted dates
400g sultanas or raisins or a mixture
60g mixed peel (or substitute dried apricots)
60g almonds, blanched or unblanched (or substitute walnuts or macadamias)
60g glacé cherries or dried cherries
2 apples, unpeeled and cored
125g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 rounded tsp each ground cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves
200g brown sugar
400g brown breadcrumbs
4 eggs
1 orange
4 Tbs Brandy or dark Rum
2 Tbs black treacle
250g melted butter or grated suet
¾ cup beer
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Weigh out the fruit and nuts into a large bowl. Make the breadcrumbs in the food processor. Use the food processor to grate or finely chop the apples. Cut orange into four, remove any seeds then process till finely chopped and pulpy. Chop figs or dates and apricots (if using) in the food processor. Roughly chop the nuts.

Add remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix well. Place mixture in lightly greased pudding bowls, filling them to about 2cm below the top. The mixture is enough to make 3 or 4 puddings, depending on size of the bowls, so you might prefer to make half the recipe. Cover with buttered baking paper, butter side down and tie with string. Or cover with foil.

Steam for 4 hours, or until puddings are evenly dark brown all over the top. I use a very large saucepan, place a metal trivet in the bottom to lift the pudding off the bottom, then place one pudding, then an upturned plate on top of that, then the second pudding, then the lid. If you don’t have a pan large enough to do this (needs to be high enough to put the lid on) you will have to use two pans. Add enough water to come about a quarter to half way up the bottom pudding bowl and keep it simmering. Be careful to keep topping up the water, so it doesn’t boil dry. (I speak from experience!)

When cooked allow to cool then cover snugly with aluminium foil and store in a cool, dark cupboard or in warmer climates, in the fridge. To serve, steam again for 2-3 hours. Tip the pudding onto a serving dish. Heat some brandy then set it alight and pour over and bring to the table while still burning. Serve the pudding with thick cream or brandy butter.

Makes 3 or 4 puddings

Brandy Butter

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
2-3 Tbs Brandy
Grated nutmeg

In a small bowl with a wooden spoon, beat butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in vanilla and brandy. Pile into a small dish and sprinkle with grated nutmeg. Chill well and serve with Christmas pudding or Sago Plum Pudding.

Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding

Posted on 5 June 2024 by Linda Peek

Someone gave my daughter Catherine a Panettone for Christmas. As they don’t like Panettone very much, she gave it to me. I have to admit I’m not mad about the Italian answer to Christmas cake either, but my “war mentality” doesn’t allow me to throw good food away. So I stuck it in the freezer. Catherine laughed when she saw me do this and admitted she had inherited my “waste not want not” approach to food and if she hadn’t been travelling she would have frozen it too.

This weekend I used just over half the Panettone to make a delicious chocolate bread and butter pudding, adapted from a recipe by Delia Smith. She uses ordinary white bread with the crusts cut off. You could use bread, panettone, croissants, brioche – anything which needs using up – which is how this traditional British dessert was first invented – to use up stale bread.

9 slices of day old white bread – or the equivalent in panettone, brioche or croissants
150g dark chocolate (I used more like 175g to make it really chocolatey)
75g butter
425ml cream
4 Tbs dark rum (optional)
pinch ground cinnamon
4 Tbs caster sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
To serve:
Icing sugar
Thick pouring cream

Butter a rectangular lasagne-type dish. In a large bowl place chocolate, broken into squares, butter, cream, sugar, cinnamon and rum, if using. Microwave until melted which will take a couple of minutes. Stop every 30 seconds or so to stir the mixture and stop as soon as it’s melted. Delia does hers the traditional way over simmering water which is safer. Using the microwave is quicker, but you need to keep an eye on it. Whisk in the eggs with a hand whisk, until well-combined.

Pour about 2cm of the chocolate cream over the base of the dish, then arrange about half the panettone slices or bread slices, overlapping if necessary to cover the base of the dish. Panettone slices are large so you need to cut them into about three and use them like a jigsaw puzzle. Pour in half the remaining chocolate cream and push all over with the back of a fork so the panettone soaks it up. Arrange the rest of the panettone or bread over the top, pour in the remaining chocolate cream, push with a fork so there are no dry bits left. Cover the dish with plastic wrap, leave for a couple of hours at room temperature then refrigerate for 24-48 hours.

Remove cling film and bake at 180°C for 35 minutes or until the top is brown and crunchy and the bottom is cooked but still soft. Remove from the oven, allow to stand for a few minutes then serve dusted with icing sugar. Pass a jug of thick pouring cream separately.

Serves 6-8

Quick Individual Christmas Puds

Posted on 20 December 2023 by Linda Peek

I first published this recipe in 2016. It’s such a good idea, I thought I would publish it again so newer subscribers can make it.

Everyone is busy at this time of year. Despite best intentions it’s easy to run out of time to make traditional Christmas puddings, cakes, mince pies and all the other Christmas fare.

Adapted from a recipe published some years ago in Delicious magazine, these individual Christmas puds, called Cheat’s mini Christmas puddings in the magazine, are very quick to make. The original recipe makes four one cup puddings, but I think half that amount is enough. I served them at a ladies Christmas lunch and we concluded that they were so small we could pretend they didn’t have any calories at all.

If you make these please let me have your comments by using the balloon at the top of the page, next to the title.

Puddings:
600g shop bought Christmas cake or dark fruit cake, crumbled (I used Aldi’s)
½ cup milk
4 eggs
⅓ cup mincemeat (fruit mince) (see note below)
¼ cup sherry
Glacé cherries to decorate
Custard:
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
2 tsp vanilla essence
4 egg yolks
1 Tbs cornflour
¼ cup caster sugar
To serve:
A jug of thick pouring cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease 8 half cup (125ml) dariole moulds or ramekins. Chinese tea cups (see photo) are ideal. Place cake, milk, eggs, sherry and fruit mince in food processor and pulse a few times just to combine – you want it to remain nice and chunky. If preferred mix by hand.

Divide among the moulds and place in a large baking dish. They should be almost full to the top. Pour boiling water to come halfway up sides of moulds. Cover baking dish with foil. Bake 45 mins or until firm and slightly risen.

Meanwhile make custard. Heat milk, cream, sugar and vanilla in a small non-stick saucepan to boiling point. Mix egg yolks and cornflour in a bowl. Tip some of the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture and stir to combine, then tip back into saucepan with the rest of the hot milk. Continue to cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula, until thickened. Don’t let it boil. Pour custard through a sieve to remove any tiny bits of cooked egg white. Chill or serve warm.

When puddings are cooked remove moulds from dish, rest 10 mins, then tip onto individual serving dishes. Serve with custard (warm or cold) and decorate with glacé cherries. Serve with a jug of cream.

Serves 8

Note: If you don’t have any fruit mince, replace it with a mixture of fruit jam or marmalade and dried fruit and nuts.

Kien’s Dutch Apple Pie

Posted on 30 August 2023 by Linda Peek

Many years ago my Dutch friend Kien gave me this recipe for Dutch Apple Pie.

Using shortbread instead of pastry and an apple filling spiced with cinnamon and rum, this cake is delicious with a cuppa or served as a dessert, with ice cream or cream.

Shortbread:
250g plain flour
150g self-raising flour
200g sugar
300g butter at room temperature
Filling:
125 sultanas
125g currants or raisins
750g peeled and sliced green apples
¾ cup rum
125g sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
½ cup apricot jam

Soak dried fruit in rum, preferably overnight. Pre-heat oven to 160C. Mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy in food processor or with electric beaters. Mix in flour until well mixed and sticking together. Tip out, form into a log and refrigerate for about 30 mins wrapped in plastic wrap. Cut log into three. Cut off slices and use about one third to press all over the bottom of a buttered 30 cm spring-form pan. Bake for 20-30 mins till golden then cool.

Filling: Turn oven up to 170°C. Mix apples with sugar and cinnamon. Line sides of cake tin with about another third of the shortbread. It’s difficult to roll out, so the easiest way is to cut off thin slices and press them onto the sides of the tin like a jigsaw puzzle. Drain dried fruit (keep rum), mix with apples and spread evenly into tin. Use remaining shortbread to make strips and form a lattice to cover apples. You will need to roll out the dough for this. Pinch edges of the lattice onto the sides of the pie so it all joins up. Bake for 1¼ hours or until light golden over the top. Spoon rum through holes between the lattice. Paint lattice with heated and sieved apricot jam, using a pastry brush. Cool thoroughly before removing sides of tin. Serve with whipped cream, pouring cream or vanilla ice cream.

If you make the cake the day before and want to serve it warm, don’t put the apricot glaze on. Next day reheat in a low oven for about 20 minutes and then brush with the apricot glaze. Reheating is optional – it’s perfectly nice at room temperature.

Serves 12

Individual Rice Puddings

Posted on 10 November 2021 by Linda Peek

Rice pudding is one of my favourite desserts. Hot or cold, with or without additions or accompaniments.

Unfortunately I married someone who was put off rice pudding and all similar desserts (custard, tapioca, semolina) after spending time at a boys’ boarding school in his youth. This is why I rarely make something I love.

Browsing on the internet recently I found a post by someone who also finds themselves alone in a house of people who are anti rice pudding. So she just makes one or two, or three or four individual puds, just for herself. What a good idea I thought, so that’s what I did. If you don’t want to turn on the oven just to cook one or two individual puddings, wait until you’re baking something else and cook them at the same time.

Mum used to make one large rice pudding when I was growing up. A delicious dark skin developed on top, which I gather some people prefer to discard. In our house we argued over who got the skin.

Per serving:
1 level Tbs short grain (eg Arborio) rice
1-2 tsp sugar, to taste
½ cup milk
A pinch of nutmeg or ½ tsp vanilla (optional)
To serve:
Pouring cream

You will need one cup ramekins or tea/coffee cups to make these puddings. Grease them lightly, as many as you want to make, and arrange on a baking tray or in an ovenproof dish. Preheat oven to 170°C.

Place the rice, sugar, milk and flavourings in each dish and stir to combine. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cooked and browning on top. You can discard the skin which forms on the tops, but I like it. Serve hot or chilled with cream.

To reheat in the microwave, drizzle a little milk on the top to moisten, then zap on high for one minute.

Makes as many as you want

Rhubarb Pie

Posted on 10 February 2021 by Linda Peek

We grow masses of rhubarb and I always like to cook what we grow, before going to buy ingredients.

With several grandkids staying at our farm with their parents for a few days during school holidays I needed to serve desserts with general all-round appeal. This rhubarb pie ticks all the boxes and, once second helpings had been fought over, there were no leftovers.

2 or 3 sheets ready-rolled puff pastry
About 5 cups rhubarb (600g or so) cut into 2cm (½ inch) slices
1 cup plain flour
½ cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbs butter
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbs water
Extra sugar
To serve:
Cream or vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 9-10 inch (20-22cm) pie plate or tin and line with pastry. You will probably need more than one sheet, but just press the pieces together where they join. Use mostly the red part of each rhubarb stick – you need enough to fill the pie shell and mound up a bit. Mix rhubarb with flour, sugar and cinnamon, then tip into pie shell and spread evenly. Dot with small pieces of butter.

Cut 2cm strips of pastry and use to cover the pie with a lattice, pinching to seal them to the sides. Brush all over with the beaten egg and water, then sprinkle with some extra sugar. Bake for 45 minutes, or until nicely browned and you can see the rhubarb in the middle of the pie is bubbling. Serve warm with cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 8-10

Apple Crumble Tart

Posted on 13 January 2021 by Linda Peek

A combination of an apple tart and an apple crumble, this dessert was a hit with young and old over the holiday period. Serve slightly warm with vanilla ice cream or cream.

1 quantity of shortcrust pastry
Filling:
1½ cups shelled almonds (can be blanched or not)
100g butter at room temperature
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbs plain flour
2 red apples, cored and thickly sliced
Crumble:
50g butter, melted
1/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup flaked almonds
To serve:
Vanilla ice cream or cream

Roll out pastry and line a 25cm quiche dish or flan tin. Refrigerate while making filling. For filling blitz the almonds in food processor until they resemble fairly fine breadcrumbs. Add butter and sugar and mix until creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides. Add the eggs and flour and mix well, again stopping to scrape down the sides.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Spread filling evenly into uncooked pastry case and arrange the apples on top, pressing in lightly. Mix all ingredients for crumble and sprinkle evenly over the top. Bake for 45 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

Serve warm with ice cream or cream. Can be made a day or two ahead and kept refrigerated. Reheat for 10-15 minutes to serve. Can be frozen for up to a month. Thaw before reheating.

Serves 8-10

Hot Chocolate Puddings

Posted on 30 September 2020 by Linda Peek

These hot chocolate puddings can be made and cooked in just under half an hour, making them perfect for a last minute gathering or a family treat. You can also make them up to a few hours ahead and leave them in the fridge until you’re ready to pop them in the oven. There’s no flour, making them gluten free.

125g butter
150g dark chocolate, broken into squares
3 eggs, separated
2/3 cup sugar
pinch salt
To serve:
Cream or vanilla ice cream

If you are going to cook the puddings straight away, preheat oven to 190°C. Place butter and chocolate in a small bowl, cover and zap in the microwave for 1-2 minutes or until melted. With electric beaters, beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and creamy. Thoroughly wash the beaters, then whip the egg whites and salt until they hold soft peaks. Add the chocolate and butter mixture to the egg yolk mixture using the beaters, then gently fold in the egg whites using a spatula. Divide between six ramekins or coffee cups (no need to grease them). They should be about three quarters full.

Bake the puddings for 10-15 minutes or put them in the fridge until you’re ready to cook them. When ready they should be well risen and firm to the touch, but still soft inside. If they have been in the fridge for a few hours they will take 2-3 minutes longer than if they haven’t.

Serve immediately with cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 6

Kaiserschmarm

Posted on 8 July 2020 by Linda Peek

This torn apple pancake is an Austrian speciality. The name translates as “Emperor’s mess” after the Emperor Franz Josef, who apparently liked it so much he ate his wife’s serving too.

I first tried this on a skiing holiday in Kitzbuhel in Austria, many moons ago. I couldn’t remember the name, so it’s taken me until now to find a recipe. My first attempt was out of balance, with too much pancake and not enough apple for my taste, so I’ve adjusted the proportions. After a bit more research I found some recipes include raisins soaked in rum and so I’ve added them to the recipe as an optional extra.

75g butter
4 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
3 large eggs, separated into two large bowls
2 Tbs sugar (to taste)
1 cup plain flour
Pinch salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 Tbs raisins soaked for an hour in 3 Tbs Rum (optional)
Icing sugar to serve

Heat 25g butter in a medium to large non-stick frying pan (25-30cm) and cook the apples, stirring, until softening and starting to colour. Add the soaked raisins, if using, then tip out into a bowl and wipe out the pan. With electric beaters, whip egg whites until soft peaks form, then add the sugar and continue to whip until you have a thick, glossy meringue.

Using the electric beaters, gradually add the sifted flour, salt, milk and vanilla to the bowl containing the egg yolks. The beaters need to be clean for the egg whites, but there’s no need to wash them before you do the egg yolk mixture. Using a spatula, gradually fold the meringue into the egg yolk mixture.

Heat 25g butter in the frying pan. Tip in the pancake mixture and cook for 3 minutes, or until the base is golden, then turn over and cook the other side. It’s not easy to turn a large pancake, so an easy solution is to cut it into four while it’s in the pan and turn each quarter separately. Don’t worry if it breaks a bit.

When golden on both sides, tip pancake onto a plate and using two forks tear it into bite-size pieces. Wipe out the pan and put it back on the heat with the remaining 25g butter. Add the pancake pieces. Cook, stirring, until golden, then add the apples and raisins and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring. Divide between 4 serving plates and dust with sifted icing sugar.

Serves 4

Lemon Curd & Almond Bread & Butter Pudding

Posted on 12 September 2018 by Linda Peek

When I was growing up in England bread and butter pudding was a popular dessert. My mother made it regularly, using stale bread, butter, dried fruit, sugar, milk and eggs. Nothing fancy, but always one of my favourites. Using up stale bread, rather than giving it to the birds or throwing it away, was something you did automatically if you had lived through the Second World War.

This version is slightly more complicated with the addition of cream, nuts and lemons. Home made lemon curd provides an added zing, but if you don’t have time buy a jar from the supermarket. If you do find time to make a couple of jars it will keep in the fridge, unopened, for a couple of months and is a useful addition to a number of easy desserts such as Blueberry Parfaits.

1 loaf brioche bread
About 1 cup lemon curd
2 cups cream
½ cup milk
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
4 eggs
4 heaped Tbs sugar
Flaked almonds
Almond Butter:
150g blanched almonds (whole or slivers)
60g butter at room temp
1 heaped Tbs sugar
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
pinch of salt
To serve:
Fresh cream or crème fraiche
Icing sugar

Make or buy the lemon curd. Make the almond butter: place almonds in food processor and process till fine, then add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Slice brioche into 1 to 1.5cm slices. Use a cookie cutter to cut rounds as big as you can from each slice. Butter a deep 8-10cm pudding tin or dish. Place all the cut offs from the brioche in the bottom then spoon about half the lemon curd over the brioche. Spread one side of each brioche slice with some almond butter and arrange over the surface, nut butter side down and slightly overlapping, if you have enough slices to do so.

Place cream and milk in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. In a bowl whisk eggs, sugar, lemon juice and rind – just enough to combine, using a hand whisk. Pour in the hot cream and whisk to combine. Pour this mixture evenly over the brioche. Sprinkle with flaked almonds and set aside for an hour or more. Dessert can be made several hours ahead or even the day before and kept refrigerated and covered. A shower cap makes a great cover!

Preheat oven to 170°C. Bake dessert for 30-40 minutes or until puffed and golden. If it starts to get too brown, cover loosely with a piece of foil and/or turn the oven down a bit.

When cooked, spoon remaining lemon curd over the top, dust with a little sifted icing sugar and serve with cream.