British Christmas Baking

In our earlier blog post about Christmas food, we looked at the traditional British Christmas dinner. That sounded delicious, I hear you say, but what about Christmas baking? Don’t panic – we’re coming to that now, although, to be honest, there aren’t too many traditional sweet treats to write about.

My husband and I lived in Canada for a year, which included staying over Christmas, and it was quite eye-opening to experience the phenomenon of Christmas baking. Friends would bake dozens of cookies of different varieties and then trade them with each other so that each household had even more different types to choose from. With North America having a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds in the population, there is plenty of variety in food, and this shows up in all that delicious seasonal baking.

The mix of cultures and ethnicities that celebrate Christmas isn’t the same in the UK. In more recent times, maybe because of the popularity of Christmas markets from Germanic countries, German Christmas baked goods have become more popular. However, two traditional British items still stand out as perennial favourites.

Mince Pies

I mentioned in the previous blog post that Christmas pudding is the most popular dessert to round off your Christmas dinner, so you may be wondering what the second most popular is. The answer to that question would be mince pies, which can be – and indeed are – eaten at any time during the Christmas season, not just on the big day itself. These pies are small, lidded pastry cases filled with mincemeat, which is a mixture of dried fruit, suet, sugar, spices, and alcohol. They are synonymous with the Christmas period and will be offered at every social event from early December, probably right through to New Year. Different varieties abound, both bought and homemade, and they can be made with flaky, puff, or shortcrust pastry. And then there are endless kinds of mincemeat, each manufacturer, store, and baker having their own unique recipe.

Mince pies can be eaten cold or warmed, and if they are the dessert course of the meal, they might be served with cream or brandy butter. Sometimes they might also be served along with Christmas pudding, so you could have both a portion of pudding and a mince pie in the same bowl.

Christmas Cake

Our final traditional Christmas food item is Christmas cake. This is a rich, dense fruit cake, generously laced with alcohol such as brandy, rum, sherry, or whisky. The cake is made a month or two before Christmas and given time to mature. During that time, it should be “fed” with more alcohol, which will help develop its richness.

A week or so before Christmas, the cake is covered with marzipan and then left for another week to allow the marzipan to dry. Its crowning glory is to finally be covered with indulgent white royal icing. The cake can be iced smoothly and adorned with decorations made from coloured marzipan or fondant. If you don’t have the time or skill to make your own, you can buy edible or plastic cake ornaments. An alternative way to finish your cake is to ice it roughly, forming the icing into peaks.

Christmas cake isn’t usually served as part of the Christmas Day main meal but will be cut later in the day when guests just need a little something to eat but definitely can’t manage another full meal! In some northern parts of England, particularly Yorkshire, it’s traditional to eat the cake alongside cheese, most likely Yorkshire’s own Wensleydale. Wallace, from Wallace and Gromit, would definitely approve!

If you’re not a fan of fruit cake, chocolate yule log has become popular in recent years. This is a chocolate roulade cake covered in grooved chocolate fudge icing. If you buy it from a shop, it will likely have a plastic robin, sprig of holly, or “Merry Christmas” decorating it. This is definitely a cake for chocolate lovers.

And with all that deliciousness, we finish our quick survey. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little two-part tour of a few popular and traditional British Christmas foods. Maybe you’re even feeling hungry now. I could murder a mince pie myself, perhaps accompanied by a glass of mulled wine – which is something we haven’t even touched on in our discussions. Cheers, happy feasting, and merry Christmas!