Cake Expectations

Photo © Rob Jones

Perusing the cook shop in the high street to savour the many things that I would like but can’t afford…

… and alighted on a vast quantity of Christmas cake decorations. Mostly reflecting the contemporary vision of Christmas - Santas, Sleighs, Fat Robins, Penguins, Elves and …. Telephone boxes?? How very traditional.

It’s clearly a dish that has taken on many guises.

At home, the Christmas Cake never quite knew when to make an appearance. It had been a month in the making. Little Robert standing on a chair to reach the kitchen table, to stir the mix, and lick the residue off the spoons. These days, Big Robert just makes up the mix and eats it raw. Bad Robert.

But should it be served after dinner? Or for tea? Or whenever anyone needed a sugar boost?

But…. I read… it actually started as a type of plum porridge, as a restorative after Christmas feasting. Mainly eaten on 12th night. The 13th Century saw the introduction of dried fruits.

Then around the 16th Century, out went the oats, and in came the flour and the eggs. Spices were making their way from the Orient and were added to represent the Three Wise Men.

Slight Puritan backlash in the 17th Century. All pleasure and jollity was banned.

Normal service soon resumed, and with the expansion of the British Empire came all sorts of goodies into the baker’s repertoire. However, Queen Victoria dedided to ban 12th Night altogether, saying it wasn’t Christian enough?

So the cake was moved to Christmas itself.

Richer families wrapped their cakes in marzipan, and then in Victorian times, that was covered by icing.

Then the dilemma… what to put on top?

What indeed.

I remember we had these cake decorations which only came out at Christmas. They had seen better days and may indeed have been made of toxic plastic. Plus, we used tiny ball-bearing type things which played havoc with fillings.

But, as a dish, it’s clearly a cultural confusion.

I wonder how much alcohol AMM has managed to cram into hers this year?

R