Christmas Cake. Wedding Cake. How did it come about that they are dense, dark, 'matured' fruit cakes with marzipan and royal icing? This is a Commonwealth tradition. What will Barbados do now?
So Christmas cake is the same as Wedding cake to me.
And then there is Christmas pudding - rich, steamed pudding made with flour, suet and dried fruits. What is the common element of both of these English Christmas traditions? Rich! Very rich.
And what about the French Buche de Noel? Now that's a traditional French sponge cake layered with a rich, butter cream frosting, all made to resemble a decorative Yule log.
The Italians have much lighter and less sweet Pandora and Panettone Christmas breads. They fall for the fruit cake trap too and have Panforte - a traditional Italian rich nut and fruit cake.
Everyone seems to fall for the marinated mature fruits as part of their Christmas cake tradition. You can tour around the world in Christmas cakes HERE.
And how does Johnny Carson fit into the Christmas tradition? With his famous fruitcake joke.
“The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.”
The article says that "For many, that wisecrack sliced like a hot knife through soft butter. Almost immediately after the jokes airing, fruitcake sales drastically declined."
Today's picture is from a few years ago - a colourized lily - the impossible blue.
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