Hello again!
I have been industrious today, and have made my Christmas Cake and Pudding. Here is a picture of the pudding mixture. Note splendid things like bottles of Brandy and Porter, and not a bag of flour or sugar to be seen. This is The Most Excellent Christmas Pudding Recipe Ever. My mum found the recipe in the 'Scotsman' newspaper back in 1962 and we've been using it ever since.
It requires steaming for 6 hours the day you make it, and then steaming again for 6 hours on Christmas Day. This ensures a beautiful glossy black exterior and a rich, moist, light interior. It always turns out of the pudding basin easily and is greeted with Cries of Approbation from the Assembled Company.
When the kids were still living at home I used to do this cooking during the October Half-Term Holiday so they could be around to give the mixture a stir and make Good Wishes while they did so. These days I do all the making of Good Wishes for the family members who will be eating the pudding on Christmas Day, but they are very fervent and heartfelt nonetheless, and I'm sure they will come true.
The Cake turned out fine this time. The first attempt collapsed because I had managed to lose my large cake-tin, so the mixture was too deep in a slightly too small tin AND I was too rushed so tried to man-handle it before it had properly cooled. (Note - when a rich fruit cake recipe says 'allow to cool completely in tin' - DO THAT THING. The very rich mixture means that there's only just enough flour/egg/butter mix to hold all the fruit/nuts /peel together, so if you don't let it set and solidify you'll end up with very tasty crumbs.) Not to worry, my husband, son and son-in-law happily cleared up the evidence of that particular faux pas. I always find that a chunk of Unexpected Fruitcake is very acceptable to the male of the species, don't you?
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