A piece of cake.
As the streets are turning into hues of ochre from the falling leaves and cold streams of air drifting through the air. A coat and jacket is advisable. Fall is here and winter is coming. You could be on the southern hemisphere and don't even know Mother Winter. While some of our Northern counterparts know Mother Winter maybe too well. The time has arrived for hot and hearty dishes like a warming stew or a piece of game like grouse. For dessert? Classic Minced Meat Pie.
For all the people outside of the UK. No, this is not a dessert with meat. (in the past it was.)
The mincemeat pie dates back to the 11th century. The crusaders used to ate this sweet and umami cake as they saw it as a symbol of Christ's birth. Cinnamon, clove and nutmeg symbolised the three magi. Then a small pastry was formed resembling infant Jesus and placed on top of the pie. Mincemeat pies are a Christmas staple throughout the old English Empire.
Mincemeat
So what is minced meat exactly and how do you make it? Mincemeat is a cake filling with almonds, apples, various dried fruits like cranberry, dates, raisins, sultanas and citrus peel. Then add the colonial mix of A LOT OF SPICES and A LOT OF ALCOHOL. Simmer it down for a few hours, put it in a jar and you are done.
And now.. wait until it's done. When is it done you may ask? Well about a YEAR.
With this concept in mind we go to to the topic of this newsletter: Christmas Cake.
Christmas Cake
The first thing Cesar said to me when I decided to write about Christmas Cake; "Isn't that a bit eager? It's only the end of October". But a Christmas Cake is something special. Much like the mincemeat pie process, it is about the aging of the filling. A good time to start should be around the summer to October, maturing the cake until it's Christmas. The maturing of the cake is called feeding and you basically pour alcohol over the cake every 2 weeks. Simple as that.
The booze, fruit and spice mix will blend over time into a harmonic but gooey and sticky emulsion. The taste has a lot of depth combining the best of the complete taste palette.
Time + Sugar + Alcohol = Perfection.
Wait what?
For the non-English, it might seem like a strange tradition to do. Start a year prior to Christmas with the making of a cake. Where does this tradition start?
In Medieval England, people had a day of religious fasting a day prior to Christmas. On the big day they wake up with a growling stomach. To fill up their empty stomaches, they ate plum porridge. However the plums were not actual plums but more like raisins. The peasants had no access to more sophisticated ingredients like flour as it was a product for the higher classes. When flour became bigger in supply, the peasantry had a field day. They started adding butter, eggs and flour wrapping it all up in a cloth and boiling it for a long period of time.
The result: a cannonball.
An appropriate name for a heavy and dense ball of fudge.
Illustrated London News (December 1848)
If one didn't fancy the cannonball, you had to come from a wealthy family as they had an oven and could simply bake the mixture.
When the cake was ready it was eaten on the "Twelfth Night", which points to the 5th or 6th of January. This night was marked as the coming of the Epiphany. In Britain the tradition was to hide a bean and a pea in the cake, the bean would crown the king and the pea would crown the queen.
Fun fact: Shakespeare has a play dedicated to the concept of the "Twelfth Night" named... "The Twelfth Night"
The Hunger
Soon enough the English were hungry, not for Christmas cakes but for exploration. The English Empire was born. From the Far East came all sort of specialities including spices, something the Christmas Cake longed for. Coriander, cinnamon, cassia, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cloves, green cardamon could all be added, the luxury of choice.
In the 19th century Christmas grew of less importance. Twelfth Night was more significant as a party night than Christmas Day, which was mainly about church, mince pies and roast birds. Then everything changed because of the way Queen Victoria celebrated Christmas. Reminiscent of today's Christmas elements.
Breakfast with the family
Presents although mainly for the children
Attend church and sing hymns and carols
Lighting the candles in the tree
The royal family celebrated Christmas with abundance and paid little attention to the Twelfth Night thus leaving the Twelfth Cake in it's wake.
Christmas Carol
The Victorian era was a period of a great disparity of wealth between classes. Thus the new royal way of celebrating Christmas came not for free.
What have you done, this ‘merry Christmas’, for the happiness of those about, below you? Nothing? Do you dare, with those sirloin cheeks and that port-wine nose, to answer – Nothing?’
(Charles Dickens, Punch Magazine 1834)
Charles Dickens immortalized his critique in Christmas Carol which remains as popular today as it was in the 19th century.
The abundant Christmas spirit was further promoted in Illustrated London News. Where the enormous feasts, parties and decorated Christmas trees of the Royal Family where depicted.
‘At dinner there were all the Christmas dishes, of which we generally had to eat a little: first the cold baron of beef which stood on the large sideboard all decked out - brawn - game pies from Ireland and others - stuffed turkey - wild boar’s head – which Albert was so fond of – mince pies etc etc’
(Queen Victoria Diaries)
The Queen ate Mince Pies or Christmas Cake on Christmas Day.
But wait? That should've been eaten on the Twelfth Night which is not on Christmas Day. That's right. Queen Victoria threw the tradition in the mud or she couldn't wait to start eating the cake, can't blame her really. However she still enjoyed the Twelfth Cake. She just had the decadence to eat one on Christmas Day and one on the Twelfth Night. Her Christmas Cakes are much like the cakes we know today. Richly decorated with ornaments on them. Depicted in Illustrated London News, the Queen's Hunting Party cake.
Illustrated London News (January 1849)
In that same century a new tradition was gaining traction.
With the growing importance of eating a cake on Christmas Day. A new social event took place called stir up Sunday. On this day the whole family came together to stir the filling and start baking the cake. Replacing the Twelfth Cake's tradition and introducing a new one, the Christmas Cake.
Victorian 2020
Fast forward to 2020, Queen Victoria's influence is ever present. With a strong consumerist behaviour towards Christmas, flooding friends and family with gifts, eating enormous amounts of food, signing hymns and starting a year early with the Christmas Cake..
Thank you for reading another instance of Foodistory. You are still on time to make a Christmas Cake, there are countless of recipes online. Grab the alcohol, sugar, fruits and spices and start going!