The English tradition of Christmas cake never fully caught on in the United States. Of all the variations of Christmas cake, Americans focused mainly on fruitcake, which is now considered a traditional gift that very few are excited to receive. Christmas cake, on the other hand, can be a wonderful gift or Christmastime dessert if made with the right ingredients.
Originally, the Christmas cake contained oatmeal, which was considered a filler so that less financially comfortable families could afford a cake for Christmas. The recipe was altered around the 16th century to remove the oatmeal and bake the Christmas cake more like the dessert it was intended to be.
Making and “Feeding” the Cake
Christmas cake is made well in advance, regardless of the variation being created. The cake is typically stored upside down in an airtight container, and once a week, it is “fed.” I had never “fed” my food before, but the concept intrigued me, so I decided to create my own Christmas cake—albeit after Christmas.
“Feeding the cake” actually means dribbling a little sherry, whiskey, or even brandy into the prefabricated holes in the cake. A small amount is a fairly subjective term, and when we finally tasted my version of the Christmas cake, I realized that a small amount meant much smaller than what I had thought.
Christmas cake can easily turn out to be very similar to fruitcake, especially if you decide to make a drier version. Since there are many varieties, the baker can opt to create a moist, fluffy version of the cake. Mine was originally intended to be moist and fluffy, but with the misinterpretation of “a small amount” of whiskey, it turned into an interesting block of liquor-soaked, chewy old fruit. I probably would have been better off attempting the original version of Christmas cake, which was more like a “plum pudding.”
The pudding was abandoned in the 14th century, although the cake it was replaced with was expensive and hard to come by, as very few households had ovens. Those who had ovens would bake the cake with one dried pea and one dried bean inside. As guests were served the cake, men were served from the left, and women from the right. Whoever received the dried bean was considered the king of the evening, while the woman who received the pea was deemed his queen for the night.
The less affluent households made a more traditional fruitcake, hiding only one dried bean inside, and served it to their guests for the twelve days of Christmas. The lucky person who found the dried bean in their slice of cake was considered a “guardian” of the family’s Christmas.
The Christmas cake originally marked the Twelfth Night of Christmas. It was once a time when priests would visit their parish members’ homes to bless them on January 5th, the celebratory day of the magi and the three kings’ arrival in Bethlehem. After the Reformation, Christmas was only celebrated on December 24th and 25th, leaving the January 5th celebration to become a day of gluttony. Without a religious event to mark the occasion, the Queen denounced the holiday and banned the celebrations. As a result, bakers were left with inventory for a cake they could no longer sell, so they adapted the recipe to create the Christmas cake, which was sold as part of the Christmas holiday tradition. This new tradition was well received, and the Christmas cake has been around ever since.
Most countries have some version of the Christmas cake, and most celebrate the holiday with this cake. However, in the United States, fruitcake is still considered a less-than-appealing offering, except for the rare few who enjoy it. In the U.S., almost any cake made for Christmas is considered the “Christmas cake” of choice.
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So where do we get the recipe for the Christmas Cake?