Christmas Pudding Making Day
"Ned lifted the latch on the door into Christmas when the muscatel raisins appeared on his counter. They were big, soft and juicy and arrived with the ordinary raisins, sultanas and currants in mid November. Ned weighed them all into stiff brown paper bags and tied them with cord that he kept on the counter in a tin box. The cord snaked its way out through a hole in the top of the can and Ned had the knack of winding it around his fingers and cracking it effortlessly."
'The Night Before Christmas' by Alice Taylor
Every year since I was 9 years old these words, in my mothers voice, have heralded the coming of Christmas. Even now, at 31, they still hold a magic for me and they come, every year, around that wonderful occasion that is Christmas Pudding Making Day. A tradition in our family that stretches back long before me and always consisted of the women of our family around the kitchen table making Christmas puddings and cakes for the coming season. Growing up it was always me, my brother and my mammy but as the years have gone by and our family has grown we have welcomed three new members into our baking tradition. My lovely sister-in-law took over from my brother, in 2012 my beautiful Niece Alice joined us and in 2015 my Nephew Jacob arrived on the scene to act as head supervisor of the whole proceedings.
For as long as I can remember one day during the Halloween midterm break the table would be set up with a big plastic table cloth over it, the yellow baby bath would be brought out and scrubbed ready for the mixing and all the ingredients, weighing scales, sieves and graters would be piled up on the table ready to go. Then comes our Christmas baking bible with the recipe that has been used from the start. The book also includes all of my mammy's diary entries for each year, with extra pages slotted in after all the free space was taken. From this we can read about this same day when I was 9, or 3 or 27. The one constant as the years bring their changes. Of course, no pudding making day would be complete without the proper musical accompaniment! Cue the old crooner Mr Bing Crosby from our cassette tape Christmas With Bing. Now we can begin.
In the pudding making preparations my job remains head cherry chopper, dividing the glacé cherries in to quarters and cleaning them with flour before they go into the mixing bowl. I honestly still don't know how I was ever trusted with a knife and slippery glacé cherries, as I am, to this day the clumsiest and most accident prone member of the family! Perhaps its part of the magic of Christmas as, after all these years, I still have all my fingers intact and any scars I may have got have happily faded over the years. My Niece Alice was an exceptional helper this year! Over the last two years I was attempting to train her in as my assistant cherry chopper but unfortunately she's not mad about sticky hands and inevitably moved away towards the nicer job of cleaning the sultanas and raisins with my mam. Alice's true talent shone through when it came to adding the eggs! She is an exceptional egg cracker and I finally got my teammate as we worked as a well oiled machine, cracking and adding the eggs one at a time! A very proud auntie I have to say.
The most hated job of all was the grating of the lemon/orange zest and the carrots and apples. This job was shared around between all of us and inevitably there would be more than one grated knuckle by the end of it.
Why the baby bath? you might ask. Well, the list of people who needed one of our puddings was pretty long! All the family plus a number of neighbours on the street and although that number has reduced a bit over the years we still make fairly big batches because, after all, our puddings are the best!! The baby bath had to be replaced eventually after my dad mixed cement in it and it was never the same again!
When all the ingredients are in, including plenty of alcohol, its time to make a wish. Although Jacob is still a little young for the actual preparation of the fruit and other ingredients he went all in when it came to mixing and making our wishes, calling it "yucky' with a giant smile on his face!
With all the wishes added all that's left is for the mixture to be divided into pudding bowls, covered with greaseproof paper and tied on with string ready to be steamed in the oven over the coming week, filling the kitchen with the most delicious smells of Christmas for days. We made 9 puddings this year to be shared around the family over the holiday season.
While the Christmas puddings take centre stage on the day there is another equally important baking job to be done. The Christmas Cake of course! As it goes it's definitely to easier undertaking of the day and can be put together quickly enough. This year, for the first time, we made two cakes. One for us and one that I will be bringing over to my soon to be mother-in-law in France when we visit before Christmas. It has taken a while for me to come around to the fact that not everyone is the Christmas pudding fan that I am. It's a fairly acquired taste, particularly if you're not Irish and so I'm trusting in the example of the French fella who really can't stand pudding but quite likes the Christmas cake and hoping his mammy will feel the same.
So there you have it, a glimpse into our little Christmas tradition and perhaps you can see why baking is such an important part of my life. It is home and family and putting wishes into cakes to then be shared with those you are closest to.
Whatever your Christmas traditions, I hope you enjoy and savour every minute of them, sure it only comes but once a year!
Ho ho ho