Any christmas goodies made yet?

travelafar love those slippers.....can you make some for my DH, with bells on, so I know where he is?
Bet they sell really well.
I haven’t had time for making any Christmas foods, what with being away and then making Christmas crafts for our forthcoming fair ( or fayre as some insist on calling it) but hopefully will make a cake next week.
Mince pies are made when we want them, probably not for several weeks yet, and a Yule Log will be made a few days before Christmas.

Made the sausage rolls today!

I've just finished putting a mountain of mincemeat into jars. It smells delicious - the alcohol fumes nearly blew my head off when I opened the oven door!

Christmas puds will be ready to steam tomorrow. I'll do them in my slow cooker, which is much easier than pans of water.

I gave away the last of last year's pudding to Ds2, who can't come up until 27th Dec, so they can have Xmas pud in the day.

In my experience, Christmas cakes and pudding never go off. At worst, they might dry out a bit in the cupboard, which can be remedied with more alcohol.

I shall be making my 2 Christmas puds this weekend, from an old GH recipe, with chopped apple, orange and lemon zest and brown ale. Smells delish when mixing up?

I always make my own brandy butter to go with them. V easy, as long as my ancient Kenwood Chef is still up for it.

We never have a Chr. Pud left to keep for next year - dh will go on eating it (warmed up in microwave with brandy butter on top) all through January, or as long as there's any left.

BTW, any leftover mincemeat after Christmas makes a lovely apple and mincemeat pie - layer of mincemeat with apple on top. Also had a v nice apple and mincemeat 'Christmas Crumble' shortly after Christmas in a pub last year. Well worth buying extra mincemeat for, IMO..

Puddings steaming at the moment ! I have run out of last years , so started a new batch one to eat one to store

Apricity during the war grated carrot was used in cakes and puddings because of the shortage of sugar and fruit.

First batch of mince pies this year. Overfilled but never mind

Mum used grated carrot in her puds . We used to have the year old one alternate Christmases and she always made them in June. Silver threepenny bit inside,nobody choked !
Both Christmas cake and Dundee cake were made in October. Her mulled wine knocked you sideways full of all sorts of things and dad used to laugh and say his socks were in there somewhere.

Mince pies by the dozen and a ham hanging up in the pantry-------------far too much stuff !! One can be overfaced with it all. Jars of pickles and chutney,redcurrant jam,apple jelly, home-made stuffing and bread sauce. Everything was on an enormous scale. This was in the 50's when folk were supposed to be struggling. I honestly don't know how she did it except that we already had fruit trees and veggies in the garden and hens which we couldn't bear to eat hahahaha.

I always save a pudding from last year as well, sooo good with some brandy butter.

This years cake made and had two feeds. Puddings done and small one tasted!, always make one for tasting, another for Easter, DH birthday and Christmas next year. Chutneys done along with mincemeat. Pears and onions pickled. I also like delia’s pickled pears, I make the same pickling syrup for onions too they are lovely. I also do her spiced oranges and Christmas chutney.

Thought I might make some mince pies this afternoon, must test the mincemeat !

My Nan never served Christmas puds made just before Christmas, always made her own, she used ones a year old for the meal. The best puds I ever tasted. There was always "next years" tucked in the back of the cupboard lol.

You lot are organised!
I usually buy a small pud (for OH) and end up using it days or weeks later as we never want any after dinner. Don't like rich fruit cakes and hate marzipan so I just make an ordinary fruit cake.

Three Christmas puddings in basins are boiling away as I write this. The puddings are made using what is allegedly my great grandmother's recipe. My mother wrote down the recipe for me when I got married nearly 50 years ago.

My great grandmother's parents migrated to Oz in the 1850s from the south west UK so I have wondered about the origins of the recipe. Among the usual ingredients of dried fruit, spices, breadcrumbs, 8 eggs and 500gms of butter (instead of suet) the recipe contains grated carrot. When I was a child in the 1950s no one had ever heard of using carrot in a cake or pudding and it seemed a very exotic ingredient. Were grated root vegetables used as "extenders" in all sorts of winter cooking in rural areas? Does anyone know more about the history of that? It's very different now where grated veggies are used in all sorts of cakes, slices etc.

The puds will boil for about 6 hours then I keep them in the frig and reboil for a couple of hours before serving usually with custard and ice cream. I have never needed to keep them in the freezer. Over the the years some puds have not been eaten for a year or more and have still been delicious. Soaking the dried fruit overnight in brandy before making and a good slosh on top of each pud before tying on the covering seems to keep them in excellent condition.

The cake is packed away and being fed regularly with amaretto. I've got some mince pies in the freezer, but more to make. I'm just making a shopping list of ingredients for Jamie's Spicy Christmas Chutney.

Yes, fruit cake with marzipan and icing, just in case it wasn't rich enough on it's own.

However our cake has to manage without marzipan as DGD loves fruit cake, but is allergic to almonds.

Thank you so much for the explanation. Christmas Cake is only the same as we call “Fruit Cake”..... love it and could eat it year round.

I have been making pairs of slipper socks for our knitting group's Christmas fair. Here is an example of a pair with silver bells. They are for little ones so as they run around the bells will tinkle!!! Others i have made have pom poms on them.They look so cute and really hoping they will sell well as the money raised goes towards training puppies for guide dogs.

Two cakes made a month ago and 'fed' again today. One stays plain and the other will be iced and decorated. Meat and veg ordered from Sainsbury's. Will get a free pudding and 1000 Nectar points for ordering early!
I'm knitting Christmas puddings to go over Ferrero Rocher chocs for DGD's school Fayre.

I've just put the fruit to soak in alcohol for making the pudding tomorrow and I've made loads of mincemeat using some of the mountain of dried fruit I discovered in my baking cupboard. I think we'll be eating mince pies until next July.

I have two cakes left from last year so will feed them up for this Christmas.

Brill chickygran

Brilliant descriptions MOnica. Don’t these traditional foods sound a bit odd when explained??
Haven’t made it yet, but last year I used Mary Berry’s Christmas cake bites. It’s a traybake version of a traditional Christmas cake complete with marzipan and icing. Very useful for Christmas Bazaar refreshments. It is more flexible than a whole cake for drop in visitors too.

Oh, mincemeat, is a rich fruit mix, rather like a fruit cake mix, but instead of adding eggs, butter and flour, it is mixed with suet (a grated fat), sugar and spices - and lots of brandy - then stored in a jar. It is used to make mince pies.

Mince pies are made in what, in the USA, would be shallow muffin pans. The pan is lined with pastry then 2/3 filled with mincemeat and a pastry cover is put over it and the join sealed. These will be baked in the oven for around 20/30 minutes and be served warm. Usually with a scattering of icing sugar over them.

We also have Christmas pudding, made from - guess what - dried fruit, spices, eggs, flour, suet and - plenty of brandy- The puddings are put on pudding basins and steamed on the hob for hours or put in a microwave for minutes.

Yes, we go big on dried fruit - and brandy - at Christmas, but fewer and fewer people eat all these delicacies these days as they are very rich and there are so many alternatives, like panettone from Italy, stollen from Germany and Bouche du Noel (Yule log) from France instead of the cake, any light sweet instead of the pudding.

But everyone (well, nearly everyone) loves mince pies.

A Christmas cake is a rich fruit cake, preferably 'dosed' with lots of brandy to keep it moist and then covered with marzipan and iced (frosted?) and decorated with appropriate Christmas motifs. It is usually round but can come square.

I am lost guys since I am from the USA. What is Christmas Cake? I have heard of Mincemeat but honestlnow what it is

I've made the pickled pears Shirleyw, they smell delicious. Look forward to enjoying them this Christmas, thank you

Made cake, mincemeat and bread sauce so far. Pudding on Stir up Sunday once everyone has stirred. Mince pies, sausage rolls and lemon curd tarts to come, have to make gluten free everything for relatives as well so doubling up. Currently making dressed peg dolls to sell for the hospice, I was inspired by the wonderful ones on here made by happysexagenarian!

That's great guys,
Chickygran.....the pickled pears are lovely, great to go with cold cuts, make these every year.