Wonderful "Twelfth Night" Cake! - 18th Century Cooking
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- čas přidán 28. 12. 2015
- Jon and Kevin are in the kitchen today making a big recipe: a 5-lb. twelfth cake. Twelfth cakes were the center attraction to Twelfth Night celebrations. They are easily documentable in 18th century texts, but interestingly, recipes do not appear in cookbooks until the early 19th century. So for this episode, in the absence of 18th century recipes specifically called "twelfth cake,"Jon and Kevin chose another "great cake" recipe called "Bride's Cake." It's virtually identical in ingredients and technique to the twelfth cake recipes of the early 1800s. Today's recipe comes from Richard Brigg's 1788 cookbook, "The English Art of Cookery." It's a wonderful, complex cake that is perfect for a traditional holiday dessert. Enjoy! #townsends12thnight
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I;ve fallen into a black hole of these videos. Can't stop watching them
yup
Must...go...to work...*click*
me too
Me 3
yup
I happened on this recipe vlog and it made me smile.
I must first say that I am a very old man, however, this all is just precisely how I recall watching my grandmother making this 6th of January cake...and each cake in the series.
I still have her wooden 'girths' as souvenirs in my kitchen. As a child I helped (?) her to tie the string. There is a special kind of slip knot to pull it together and a "slip knot song" to help make it correctly. ..this is like a girls skipping song. ( of my age )
Our 6th January cake recipe had many more nuts than you showed and nutmeg...which was a very precious spice to my grandma and the little nut was kept in its own little box.
Watching this brought back so many memories .. My grandma lived til 102 so this is many years old to me.
It's a shame that we don't teach these traditions to our children as it was taught in my childhood.
There were certainly different cakes for each of the twelve days of Christmas.
The cakes evolved from a black moist very very sweet alcoholic Christmas day cake with molasses to the much "whiter" nutier cake you cooked for 12th night. They got wider too.
There is another song about the sharing "rules"!
Christmas Day cake was for the close family...( The family of Christ in fact ) and each day the sharing was spread wider.....hence widening the girth..to provide for more people..
So Boxing Day... (26th December) included the extended family...uncles and aunties only.
It is a religious analogy of course...so the cake allowed for more sharing as the holiday progresses.
One slice was for each different members of Christ's disciples too..I seem to recall.
The 27th for example included closest dearest friends..( I think also St Peter)
The 28th included then immediate neighbours.
..then the wider neighbourhood...I can't recall the whole song. ..but the twelfth night cake also includes a slice for the church which was taken to church.
Each cake contains different fruits from sultanas to cherries to raisins ( yummy ) and different nuts...
I feel most remiss to have not kept my grandma's book.
It literally fell apart.
I do know it was dated 1746 as she called it her Culloden or Cumberland cookbook ...after the year on the first page.
Whether that counts as 18th century cookery or tradition I can't say...but in my memory we did eat a slice each "night".
The adults had a small glass of different rich sweetened wine ( like Madeira wine or Port wine or Jerez wine) or spirits for each cake..
I still have a few of these glasses, they are very thick glass and the small bowl is about as big to contain a man's thumb to the first joint.
As a child I had warmed milk...with a different spice or sweetener like cane syrup or some sort of molasses ( it tasted like rum so I guess it is molasses). We also used different honeys ..but always nutmeg on 12th night.
The cake was set out to be admired ( and sniffed by us children) all day and always eaten ritually just as the sun had set...
Enjoyable to see the American take on my English experience.
Hope my remembrances make sense. If you can find the songs or the cycle of cakes, I'd love to see them in your vlogs.
Magica, this was a lovely read and I'm going to do some more research into these traditions. I love the idea that night after night a family would invite more people into their home to celebrate and spread warmth.
🙂
Thank you.
MagicaLucem I thank you for sharing your memories. You tell a story beautifully.I can close my eyes and see scenes from your grandmother’s kitchen as clearly as if I had been there, too. My great grandmother’s grandmother brought a recipe for Christmas pudding from England when she came to the US in the early 1800’s. I have a copy her daughter made, and it is precious to me.
One or another of us makes the pudding every year. None of my mixing bowls is large enough for all of the batter...I think they must have used a big dishpan to mix it. My own grandmother made the pudding each October so that it could age properly. She served quarter cup mounds of it in dainty bowls with a moat of creamy egg and butter sauce surrounding it.
Thank you for bringing my own memories to mind. Happy 2020 to you, sir!
MagicaLucem, thank you for sharing! This is just as much a part of our history as the wonderful stories and experiences that John shares with us. There are so many people I would feel honored to meet and talk with, you and your grandmother would be two of them.
Just two bros bakin' a cake.
Robert Mayfair In matching hats.
Leilani #RelationshipGoals
Five feet apart
@Peter Griffin they are actually friends
Bros for life
As a child (I’m from the UK) I used to “help” my dad make one of these at Christmas time. I hope you enjoyed it - I absolutely loved it myself. Dad used a little black treacle and a little bit of stout to give it a deep, almost smoky undertone, the absolute mad lad that he was!
Cheers!
Did you know that the reason that currents are so hard to find in the United States is because they were actually banned in the US in the 19th century. The lumber industry petitioned congress to ban the growth of both black and red currents in the US because they were the carriers of white pine blister rust. The blight was harmless to the berries but was killing the white pine tree which was a favorite lumber source at the time. Today, the ban is still in place in most northern states (the indigenous area of the white pine) but not in the southern states, but because the berries have not grown in the US for so long there is basically no market for them.
Actually these are not the same thing. In the UK currants used in cake baking are dried grapes ( www.thespruce.com/raisins-sultanas-and-currants-435341 ) and nothing to do with black or red currants. It is true, though , that the soft fruit was banned in the US so that Ribena for instance is not a US tradition.
Zante currants, which are the ones used in these cakes are very much available in the US.
This is great info. We are Americans currently living in Norway and black and red currants are a staple here in SO many recipes from drinks to baking to meats. I'd never had a currant before moving here and I've always wondered why. Thank you for sharing!
I like their flavor so much more than raisins.
They are currently still banned in much of New England, but here in Virginia I can grow them!!
Twelfth Night Cake (5lbs)
Ingredients:
1lb butter
1/2 lb sugar
8 eggs, separated
3 cups or 1lb flour
3/4 tsp ground mace
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup or jill of brandy
1/4 cup each candied orange, lemon and citron rind
1 cup slivered almonds
1 lb zante currents
*optional silver coin or a bean
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Prepare tin/wooden baking pan (size? I'm guessing about 8-9" diameter & 3-4" high), line with parchment paper and butter so it doesn't stick. Mix Zante currants, candied rinds, and slivered almonds together. Mix mace and nutmeg into the flour. Whip egg yolks. Whip egg whites until stiff peak stage. Cream butter and sugar until white. Mix together eggs and sweet butter. Fold in flour mixture. Fold in sweetmeats (fruit mixture). Pour in the prepared baking pan and bake for about 2 hours or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy!
We made this cake about a year ago and were so impressed that we made it again to take to the family x-mas, and we just made it a third time to take to a work pot-luck. It's a good, strange but good, cake. I would have expected it to taste like a fruit cake, which I really dont like, but it really didnt taste that way at all. It does have a crumbly texture but it's not unpleasant. The sweet meats on the darkened crust of the cake are a bit chewy but the sweet meats in the crumb are not.
1. We used cranberries in place of currents, they give it a nice flavor with the orange and lemon.
2. we put the Sac in with the sweet meats, someone in a comment below did the same thing.
3. you have to put some tin foil over the top of it when you start cooking it or it will come out way, way too dark.
4. it does have to cook for 2 hours. If you test it after an hour the knife will come out clean but that seems to have more to do with the fact that the batter is so fluffy, not runny. One of the 3 cakes we took out after an hour, because it 'looked done' and the knife came out clean, only later to discover that the center had not cooked all the way. It had set up and seemed firm but, when it was poked it was clearly mushy-fluff-batter. The edges of the cake were salvageable.
5 and the last thing that we learned, it is better to candy your own peels then to buy them. The ones you make have a stronger flavor then the store bought kind. All you need to candy peel is sugar, water, and some time.
I hope this helps others who want to make this interesting cake.
@GALLOWSGOD Thank you so much for the pointers. I would never have thought of making my own candied citric peels but will certainly try. I can imagine that they would be more flavorful. I love fruitcake but I am spoiled by the cakes made from our family recipe which has been passed down at least five generations. It isn’t like any other I have tried. The density of this Twelfth Night cake makes me think of it. Since we celebrate Old Christmas, which is Twelfth Night, I think this would be a perfect addition to our festivity. Thanks again!
I would have guessed it tastes like a fruitcake too.
@@merk9569 making your own candied orange and lemon peel is very easy. You can find recipes for it online
Many Spirits Thanks!
I'd just leave out the citrus peel. Hate it Maybe sub dried cherries or pineapple
Soaking the garts often helped with scorching, as twelfth night cakes often were very big requiring long slow cooking ... Scottish texts carry many recipes from Tudor times. Often three/four items hidden in the cake Inc coin/ring/bean to represent the king of twelfth night.
There were also other items hidden in the cake:
If you got a clove you were a villain.
If you got a twig you were a fool.
If you got a rag you were a tarty girl.
Sadly in the 1870’s, Queen Victoria outlawed the celebration of the Twelfth Night as a day of revelling, fearing everything would get out of hand. Though its memory has faded, people still associate Christmas with a fruit cake and you can keep the tradition alive by making your own.
My church (American Episcopal) still does an Epiphany Cake, hiding objects in it. Though, they're more modernized (marbles of certain colors that would imply certain minor duties to whomever got them (typically small parts of other celebrations, like getting to wave the dove around during the Pentecost sermon, or processing the statuete of Baby Jesus up to the Nativity the next Christmas), two different coins for the King and Queen (usually for Mardi Gras)), and some other things, either fun traditions or impetuses to give some small amount to either a charity the church does, or time/effort to some outreach events we do. But our pastor is a man of VERY distinctly Scottish descent, so we'll frequently get to learn/hear from him some of the older traditions of Twelfth Night and the history of the cakes and celebrations. So im always glad to see stuff like this comment come up.
THANK YOU for getting the word out about "The 12 Days of Christmas" ; that they BEGIN on Christmas day and conclude on The Epiphany or the 12th Night - in Louisiana this launches MARDI GRAS season! Merry Christmas everyone!
Well that's not true at all
I though Mardi Gras was between February and March
@@Marlaina It is, but in New Orleans it is more of a season. The parades, balls and parties last from Epiphany to Mardi Gras.
We are Episcopalian and we absolutely celebrate the twelve days of Christmas in my church and within our family.
We always leave our home the day after Christmas and head to Williamsburg,Virginia for a wonderful family vacation of sorts. Things are quieter at this time,so we don’t have to fight the crowds.
We like to stay at The Lodge,but there are more budget friendly places in the area.
Bruton Parish Church is an active episcopal church right on the main drag. We always try to stick around for their epiphany service on the 12 day (January 6 or the closest Sunday to that date)
The town of Williamsburg also puts on an amazing first night celebration on New Year’s Eve that my kids loved as teens. Venues all over the city have different events at various times the entire evening. The running about is too much for me,so I curl up by the fire in the pub of the Lodge and enjoy rum runners,the live music,and often a good game with new friends of trivial pursuit!!
The kids would have their passes,the city map,and event schedule and go and enjoy everything from comedy acts,to puppet shows,to exhibits (transportation trolleys were included) and end up at midnight at the stadium of the college of William and Mary for some great bands and fireworks.
Fun,fun,fun if you’re close enough to enjoy it some year! Other cities do first night as well. I know Alexandra,VA does and so does Boston.
Anyway,it’s a marathon,not a sprint...
But we keep our tree and decorations up until twelfth night,when we have a party to end the season.
We continue the upbeat feel though to February ....until Lent begins 40 days before our Easter season.
I love following the liturgical calendar,and the 12 days of Christmas are close to my heart ♥️
We still have my great-grandmother's recipe 12th night cake every year, normally cut into it on new years eve and have a piece after the clock hits 12 and we sing auld lang syne, My mother makes it months in advance and steeps it in brandy to keep it moist.
Archaeonomy that sounds great but why make it so early in advance only to try keeping it fresh and moist for so long?
This kind of cake gets better if you let it age. The complex flavors of the fruit, spices etc blend together. The brandy adds its own flavor.
I think we'd all like to come over to your house for New Year's.
The booze keeps it moist and it is stored in a tight container.
You wanna hook us up with this cake? Because I think we need it.
Don't do it if your mum would have your throat tho.
Wow. This really makes me appreciate such a small thing as an electric whisk and a springform cake tin. 😂
I followed your recipe and iced it. invited my friends over cut into it and it was absolutely gorgeous both appearance-wise and taste.
My grandmother used to bake a similar cake with almonds, raisins and other dried fruit for the occasion, which is also my father's birthday, so it doubled as his birthday cake. It would have coins in it for the children since my grandparents couldn't afford presents, but the original tradition is probably just having the one coin in it. She would bake it in the shape of a star to represent the star that led the three kings or wise men to Christ. I also have family from Louisiana where for Epiphany and Mardi Gras you have the king cake with a baby Jesus in the cake. The king cake doesn't have any of the fruit or nuts in it like the twelfth cake but does have nutmeg and cinnamon and is coloured purple, green, and gold to represent the three kings and the Christian values of Justice (purple), Faith (Green), and Wealth/Prosperity (Gold) for the community. So the US does celebrate Epiphany with a French variation of the cake, it's just that it is only celebrated in one state.
No Mardi Gras is celebrated in Mississippi and Alabama. Paul's king Cakes from Paul's Bakery in Picayune, MS. are great. Not as good as Randozzie's but good.
Fanny. The bakery is Randazzo’s that makes the BEST King Cakes. Paul’s runs the best 2nd. Lol. The feast of Epiphany 6th January ( feast of the three kings/ Octave of Christmas) is celebrated in South Louisiana, along the Gulf Coast of MS and in Mobile AL - anywhere there are a lg Catholic community and Orthodox communities between Lafayette LA and Mobile AL which takes in the MS Gulf Coast. Twelfth Night is the beginning of the Carnival Season (Mardi Gras season) where there are king cake parties, several parades of beautiful floats made by various Krewes and also fancy dress Mardi Gras Balls until the day of Mardi Gras itself which is the biggest and final feast and ball til midnight when the penitential season of Lent begins: Ash Wednesday. We go to church to Mass and receive ashes on our foreheads afterward to remind us we are dust and will die someday. So we do penance with increased prayer for 40 days of Lent leading up to Holy Week and Paschaltide (Easter season).” There are various traditions re what is baked into the cake for someone to find: a silver coin or medal, a bean or a small image of Baby Jesus. There are also various traditions about that too: if you find it you might be named either king or queen of the party and maybe get a little gift; you might be obliged to throw the next king cake party if still Carnival season; or you might simply be the one who gets to choose the Saint who will be patron for the rest of the year to pray for everyone there.
I love this series. I'm on a severely reduced sodium diet and most modern cakes are full of salt: baking powder, baking soda, added salt, and I can't eat most of them. This sounds like a cake that I could enjoy without worry, especially if I substitute unsalted butter in.
Might I ask the cause of the diet? Is it related to hypertension or something entirely different?
10:17 - I love the simultaneous "oh wow" reaction. I can't wait to bake this cake for Christmas 2019 :)
I always boil raisins or currants in orange juice before using them in a recipe.
I am so glad I discovered u...I am a historian and I never tire of learning our history...ppl today take so much for granted with all the technologies....I spread the word to have a back up pack with water, matches, canned food, etc...in case the lights go out bc if they do and they will, ppl will panic and we will be thrust back into the 18th 17th century...
i really respect you for sharing history in the best way. I am so happy someone honors cooking from so long ago such as the 18th century. im watching all your videos, i love honoring historic times, especially recipes because so many don't understand that recipes die, like imagine.. never having recipe from a great great grandfather or someone who was very important from so long ago.. recipes from the 18th century at least i find to be very difficult to find that uses the actual tools at the time especially. it just feels so wonderful to see recipes from this time to not be forgotten. Seeing your videos are tranquil and educational, i cant wait to learn more.
A full pound of butter? You have my attention!
I _was_ gonna' say "It's a Southern thang," but it wasn't. =)
that's pretty much what we have here in the UK and generic Christmas cake...the only things different is we soak the peel and dried fruits in brandy and coat the cake in marzipan...obviously with the odd ingredients that differ such as nutmeg and cinnamon but still pretty much a Christmas cake
That sounds utterly DIVINE. Marzipan is gorgeous stuff.
That butter has a beautiful golden yellow color.
Chi Nnanna - That’s the carcinogenic additive, this is the 18th century after all.
For clarification my comment was meant to be a tongue in cheek reference to “butter yellow” which is an azo dye and used to be added to butter to make it more yellow and hence more “appealing” , it was actually only invented in the 1860s and so would not have been in 18th century butter, I hadn’t checked that at the time.
Wikipeadia says “Butter yellow was synthesized by Peter Griess in the 1860s at the Royal College of Chemistry in London.[5] The dye was used to dye butter in Germany[5][6] and other parts of the world[citation needed] during the latter half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th before being phased out in the 1930s and 40s. It was in the 1930s that research led by Riojun Kinosita showed the link between several azo dyes and cancer, linking butter yellow to liver cancer in rats after two to three months exposure”
Raihan2 - Do they, I didn’t know. The old “butter yellow” thing was something that stuck in my memory from school chemistry but I had to look the details up online. Thank you for your response, comment sections can so easily turn into wars. 🙂
it amazing how wonderful to praise a cooking passed down from so long ago. thank you so much for honoring the cooking as a masterpiece.
We made this cake for years... it was our Christmas cake, but we always tossed the fruit and raisins etc in some flour before adding.
Have done it with dried tropical fruits, suggest soak these fruits in brandy night before as too dry, and they pull moisture from the surrounding cake.
Great for storing and taking it on hikes, quick energy .
This may have to become an alternate to our yearly Dundee Cake (a long time favourite from Delia Smith which never fails to please). I really enjoy the JT&S videos, and this one was really informative - as always!
+James Reid Thanks!
+Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc. Dundee cake will have almonds pressed in on the top of cake in a decorative pattern. Christmas cakes in the UK look similar to what you produced but then are decorated with a layer of marzipan followed by a layer of icing. Delia Smith as James Reid suggests is a good modern source for recipes for both these cakes. A side note - if you find the cake is too dry prick the top of the cake with a skewer and pour over a bit more brandy. Thanks for the great video, it's nice to see that the recipes of the cakes my Mum makes each year has little changed in centuries.
It almost reminds me of an Italian Panettone during the holidays
francisco velez - panettone would have a much softer lighter consistency than a fruit cake like this, its fuel for the northern European winter
My exact thought!
Merry Christmas to you! And thanks for bring up the "12 Days"! They are so much better than the modern "sort of starting six weeks ago and done by 5pm on the 25th"!
This reminds me of the cake served in my uncle's old cafe. I remember him setting it down and at first I turned up my nose, expecting it to be like the doorstops that we think of as fruit cake nowadays. But once I gave it a go, it was absolutely delicious, especially with a mug of tea (or, if Papa thought you were ill, hot spiced wine. I swear that his idea was to get you too drunk to care you're sick and miserable).
Im addicted to your videos ever since I came across them (which was last night 😂) thank you for doing this, coming from a person obsessed with the 18th and 19th century! much love from Pakistan
If I remember right, the time before Christmas (Advent) was like a little Lent - a time of fasting. Then the Christmas season or Christmastide would last 40 days until (I think) the Presentation of the Lord at the temple. Liturgically speaking, Christmas and the Epiphany are a lot closer in importance than we celebrate secularly.
Anyway, I think we will try this.
This is correct. Advent is still observed that way in the Christian East (Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc.), although the "fast-free" season that follows (meaning that the usual 2 fasting days of the week are not observed) remains the 12 days.
And Christian churches in the west!
Yes, Advent is a time of preparation, like Lent. However, Christmastide lasts TWELVE days, not 40. Advent is 40 days, just like Lent is. Christmastide is Dec 25 - Jan 5 with Jan 6th being Epiphany. Jan 5th is 12th Night.
Correct
Still is, for those of us who are Orthodox! We call it the Nativity Fast.
The Christmas season begins on the vigil (night before) of Christmas Day. It continues through January sixth which is the twelfth day of Christmas. Catholics still celebrate twelve days of Christmas. The four weeks leading up to Christmas are in the season of Advent which is NOT Christmas but a full season to prepare our hearts for the Incarnation Our Lord and his second coming. If you want twelve days of Christmas (rather than the one day celebrated by our culture) consider the Catholic faith!
Thank you for such entertaining and professional videos. We've been re-inactors for years and appreciate all you do. Love your sense of humor!
I would definitely pay for a history lesson/culinary lesson cooking some of these recipes in that kitchen! That would be an incredible experience.
I made this before, many years ago though, this will inspire me to re-visit it. The tradition was to put a pea and a bean in it, relating to the 12th night party games of crowning someone a King or a Queen for the night. Like putting a coin in a Christmas Pudding probably not that practical today though, hence a potential choking hazard. The recipe I have is to ice it with an elaborate crown on top, this wasn't the original recipe I believe but became popular later on.
Bringing history to life - LOVE your channel!
That crust on the outside looks wonderful, I love a crispy outside!
I made my very first Twelfth Night Cake! I modified your recipe a bit though. I cut the amount of orange rind, lemon rind, citron rind and dried cranberries by half. I cut the butter to 3/4 of a pound. I beat the egg whites, by hand, in a copper bowl. I will definitely make this twelfth night cake next year as a new tradition!
This is known as the Twelfth Day or Kings cake. The bean or coin was a throw back to ancient fertility rites. It was replaced with a small doll. It is still used in Mardi Gras celebrations.
I'm very glad to see this video, as it actually answers a question that has piqued my curiosity for the past few years. I've been doing readings of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' at a local bookstore in conjunction with a local ballet company's adaptation of the story. In Stave Three, when Dickens describes the 'kind of throne' on which the Spirit of Christmas Present sits, it is made up of all kinds of foodstuffs, including 'immense twelfth-cakes'. So, apparently, twelfth-cakes were still well-known and popular in 1843, when the book was published. I'd been wondering about that item, and now that I know what he meant, I plan to make at least one in the not-too-distant future. It looks absolutely delicious, and quite the thing for a holiday celebration at such a time of year.
+HannibalFan52 In the United States, I've read that the 12 Days of Christmas were celebrated by everyone visiting one another. Not only are these cakes impressive looking, it would be really convenient to have a huge cake -- that would stay good for at least 12 days without much trouble -- that you could just keep on the sideboard and give slices to all your friends and neighbors who came to visit.
+E. Urbach Visiting friends and neighbors over the twelve days of Christmas was probably very common on both sides of the Pond, right up until fairly recently. After all, they didn't have the distractions of television, computers, etc. that we have today. I agree that a cake of that sort would not go stale easily, and since visitors often had large families, there would be plenty to go around!
I know I’m only like....5 years late. 😆
But as a fellow *Dicken-head,* have you looked into the story behind the writing of a Christmas carol? It’s every bit as fascinating as the story itself! ❤️
@@glorygloryholeallelujah Yes, I'm very familiar with the background of 'Christmas Carol'. It's one of my favorite books of all time, and the 1951 film with Alistair Sim is the best version going, as far as I'm concerned. Have you seen the film 'The Man Who Invented Christmas'? it deals with that exact story. Dan Stevens is excellent as the young Dickens, and Christopher is fantastic as Scrooge.
@@glorygloryholeallelujah I’m only 5+ years late on this! As a fellow Dickensonian, I’ve read the account of the story behind A Christmas Carol, I read it every Christmas Eve!
Jon, thanks so much for your videos. The cooking ones are my favorites. Can't wait for the next one
It is absolutely ridiculous how much I love these videos.
Fantastic! I can't imagine anyone else doing what you are. And it's so wonderful.
How can anyone dislike this???? I'm baffled beyond belief
Julius Lange Finkas Jensen trolls are just losers.
I just went to the 12th Night at our church tonight. Lots of beautiful music. Musical groups from all over the community performed. The church was packed.
You guys are hysterical together! Thanks for a fabulous recipe! Happy New Year!
The tree stays up until Epiphany!
In my family, my uncle is reviving the tradition of "wacky cake" for family birthdays; coins are baked into it.
Tree stays up and lights stay on. God bless.
I always wondered where the 'fruit cake' had its roots.
What we in the US call "fruit cake" is called Christmas cake in the UK and still extremely popular there.
Yep, that looks like a British cake, all right. Sorry guys, and thanks for all the hard work, but that cake seems like what Santa'd leave in your stocking if you were bad.
Super popular here in Australia too.
they go back even farther. Germany has been making them since the middle ages
@Mischievous Emperor I was just thinking how this reminds me of kulich (Russian Orthodox Christian Easter Bread)!!! Glad I'm not the only one who noticed the similarity!
I love these shows, not only is it original but also educational. I'm an adult now, but while younger, even now, I've alway kind of thought why and what was the purpose of why eggs were added in cakes and pastries. Thanks for the video, a helping me understand and learn more...
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! For the last three years me and my grandmother have been making 2 or 3 of these cakes around christmas, and has quickly become one of our family’s alltime favourites!
Traditional English Twelfth night cake, Christmas cake and wedding cake was pretty similar, rich fruit cakes like this one, though Twelfth night cakes are a bit lighter. Unlike a Christmas cake that takes a couple of months to mature, Twelfth cakes don't but they're better a couple of days later.
Kinda like the King Cake we get in New Orleans. A little baby doll is hidden in the cake. Whoever gets the doll has to buy the next King Cake.
And that is also called a Dreikönigskuchen in other parts of the world. We have used a recipe that is more bread-like in nature that was passed down by my wife's uroma.
I can´t believe how welcoming and nice these amazing lovely guys are! ♥
Fascinating to see this version of the recipe. My great grandmother was in service to a family in the late 19th century. She worked her way up from scullery maid to cook. I expect this was similar to the cakes should would have made. Fascinating to watch. My mother used to make a wonderful rich Christmas cake which she diligently feed. It was very well fed by the time it was cut and served!
Reminds me of pannetone that my Sicilian grandfather always makes for Christmas!
My late husband was Sicilian. I am a Scot. We’ve had both in our home. They’re both delicious! Panettone is lighter in texture than this cake although it looks quite similar.
You have no idea how disappointed I was when you showed the ingredients and I discovered that the dark bits were not chocolate chips. Story of my life.
LOL Chocolate chips didn't exist back then. Chocolate chips were invented in 1937.
Nah, chocolate chips have been around a lot longer than 1937. Originally, they were just chocolate bars cut up into chunks. The pre-formed "chocolate chip" or "chocolate morsel" is what dates from 1937. It's like saying butter wasn't around until they started manufacturing it in stick form.
On the other hand, it would hardly have been a readily available 18th century ingredient for baking. It was more used for drinking than anything else. Not really a baking ingredient until the 19th century.
@@mahna_mahna good job you really roasted him
My niece when small when presented with a currant bun would pick each one and put it in her mouth and then take it out again when she found it wasn’t chocolate
Thank you so much for posting this incredible video. It's amazing to look back on the past and see how they really did it! Thank you
I'm officially in love with this channel. We're so used to modern conveniences I'd never thought about cakes. This was an amazing lesson.
Greek Orthodox considers the Christmas season until epiphany ( Dec 25 - Jan 6), which is twelve days. Interesting about the cake, in that, we also cut a cake with a hidden coin, (Basilopita, pronounced Vasilopita), on New years day, who ever gets the coin has luck for the rest of the year.
Probably related with the twelve night cake, perhaps?
In the Orthodox Church it's called Theophany. Theophany is about the baptism of Christ. In the west, Epiphany is about the three wise men. The Orthodox Church include the three wise men on Christmas day. I would bet that the tradition of hiding a coin in the St. Basil cake/bread predates this twelfth night tradition. Orthodox traditions are almost always older than western traditions.
All Catholics and Orthodox still celebrate the entire Octave of Christmas and Easter. You guys are missing out.
Redheaded Stranger same here!
And LCMS Lutherans
Not to mention the four weeks of Advent prior to Christmas.
Ditto Episcopalians.
The Anglican Church celebrates it as well.
That looks really good! I love your channel, the videos are relevant for years to come, they never go out of style.
This looks just like Panettone! Italians still serve this kind of cake during the Christmas season.
in the UK its gone from a 12 day celebration to 9
its now from CHRISTMAS EVE (24.DEC) to NEW YEARS DAY (JAN.1)
and we put lots of tiny holes in the top using a needle or cocktail stick
7 let brandy soak into the holes then its wraped and left to mature for 6
weeks it improves with time ( its not Christmas without one )
colin wilson yeah unfortunately....
You forgot to tell everyone about what happens when the person gets the slice of cake with the coin!
+sara sammon what happens? Do you know?
LOL. well, count me in, then! I love to whisk eggs. Beat them to a lather.
The man who finds the bean in his slice of cake becomes King for the night while the lady who finds a pea in her slice of cake becomes Queen for the night. The new King and Queen sit on a throne and “paper crowns, a scepter and, if possible, full regalia are given them.” The party continues with games such as charades as well as eating, dancing, and singing carols.
+sara sammon If I recall correctly, there is a special gift set aside for the person who finds the coin. There are also sets of charms that can be hidden in a Twelfth Night cake or plum pudding, which supposedly predict the future for the finder. The coin, obviously, would mean money, the ring might mean the finder is going to get married, the wishbone for a wish to be granted, and so on.
+Gary Danhour or, perhaps, Caitlyn Jenner may jump out of one!
Im in love with this channel also. I binge several episodes at a time. It makes you appreciate the way they did things back in those times.
WOW that's amazing! Such a beautiful cake. I can just see the mother, or cook prepare this wonderful masterpiece.. to anyone who makes this enjoy!
Well you will find that any liturgical church goer still celebrates the 12 days of Christmas. It is celebrated in many homes and churches throughout the US.
The idea of epiphany is still kept in many countries. I.e. in Brazil you only remove your Xmas decorations on that day.
I am from the US, and Christmas is a twelve day season for me. We sing songs on each of the twelve days.
Love this! This is how my mom made her cake for 12th night. Amazing how so many of our family recipes are so old!
Being Welsh it's so refreshing to hear an American refer correctly to my country as Great Britain instead of England....thanks ☺
@Redheaded Stranger Yes indeed they have.....and i started them! 😁
man you could make wood rings for the bottom instead of the string and have your own lost 18th century item. I like that set up with the wood and then just make a wood ring to tighten up the paper. thats awesome to me and I'm am sure someone of that time would have thought the same thing. I wonder if you guys will ever try cheese.... I am learning that myself now
In my family we celebrated "Christmas " and "Old Christmas ", "Old Christmas " was Epiphany. On "Old Christmas " members of our immediate family would each receive a slice of applesauce cake. Mother would always say to leave out the raisins and double the nuts. This was a time of simple celebration separate from all the commercialism of Christmas.(the 25th) Thank you for the memories.
I'm English (as in born and brought up there, complete with English parents etc...) this cake is pretty light compared to a Christmas/wedding cake 😊😋 They like the ban either grease proof paper, and brown paper on the outside, and it takes hours and hours to cook. I fancy having s go at this one as a quick alternative of yummy goodness 😍😋 I need to get the book!
haha....we were poor when we were young and lived in the country we always creamed our butter by hand....and still do. I guess it's something that stayed.
Baking the cake in a cast iron pan also protects the edges
Unfortunately it weighs thirty pounds so you need to get Big Ed From the Loading Dock to pull it out of the oven.
My son is Anglican and he celebrates the 12 days of Christmas, we live in Georgia, USA
Jon, I don't know if anyone suggested this, but use a butcher's knot to secure your string holding the paper on you Garth. To do it, to take an extra loop of the string before you finish off the knot.
I can't help it that the butter n egg yolk were added into the egg whites first after the emphasis on retaining air as leavening component of the cake. It'd be better if yolk is mixed into the creamed butter followed by sultanas and then flour. finally incorporating egg whites in 3rds.
BeefAndPumpkinSoup ... It looked like they were actually whipping instead of folding the egg whites, but I guess it turned out okay.
I thought exactly the same thing. I wonder when and where the technique of folding in whipped whites appeared. Maybe they are just being historically accurate? I have never looked at historical recipes; they may be great records of ingredients and maybe amounts but lack information on techniques.
Practical modern cooking notes:
Cooked in 1 hour and 40 minutes in a 10in aluminum round pan, substituted rum for the brandy (not mentioned but add the alcohol to the sweetmeats to absorb into the currents and almond...Half the currents to ensure they aren't overpowering. My family added 3/4 tsp of cinnamon to balance the citrus. If the cake top starts to dry out cover with aluminum. Great tasting cake and has become my new family tradition on the holidays! Great recipe!
What a lovely video, get to learn all about the history of cooking and the recipe you guys show. Amazing wish this show was on tv
We are Catholic in America. We celebrate the twelve days!
Anglicans today still observe the Twelve Days of Christmas more or less.
As do Eastern Christians, I.e., Orthodox, Byzantine (Greek Catholics).
This looks just delightful! I want to try making a half-sized version of this next holiday season. Thank you for this wonderful video!
Gotta try this one!! Thanks for the great videos, and a Happy New Year to you good folks!!
My Italian grandmother made a very similar cake!
Probably a panettone if iirc
5:10 "The recipes can be pretty specific, and usually require that you have your ingredients ahead of time"
like Nutmeg?
"This recipe calls for a full pound of"
Nutmeg?
"Butter... as well as a half pound of"
Nutmeg?
"Sugar. We have 8"
cups of Nutmeg?
"Eggs... after that, we have 3 cups, or about a pound"
of Nutmeg?
"of flour... along with 3 quarters of a teaspoon of"
_Nutmeg?!?_
"of ground mace and"
_AND?!?_
"ground nutmeg"
*FIREWORKS!!!!*
I am absolutely going to make this cake this christmas. My mother used to make two or three christmas cakes and she would line her metal tins with thick brown paper and then greased/buttered parchment. After they were cooked, she'd pour a good amount of brandy or rum over them.
To my opinion that was your best video yet.
What a beautiful cake!
In the Dutch we have a special day called"Driekoningen" (I think Belgium and Germany know it 2) and on that day all ppl who can be Prince Carnival eat of a massive cake, wich has a bean or coin in it. Whoever gets the peace with the"prinsenboon" becomes Prince Carnival. The prince Is in charge of the city together with his "ministers" during Carnival.
Switzerland has it too! Dreikönigstag! Special cake with a king or a queen in it. And whoever gets it, is king for a day and gets a paper crown. Kids love it. And in my family we always lose bcs my Dad always finds the one piece with the king in it! :)
You cn buy these bread-like cakes everywhere. But I normally do one after my Grans receipe
Noei H ah cool! Always nice to see those traditions being everywhere, i always thought "Sinterklaas" (Sint Nicolas) was typically Dutch, but almost all european countries know it in one way or another :)
Sinterklaas or as we call it Samichlaus is celebrated on the 6th December. And christmas we have something called Christkind who brings the presents. It's very interesting to see how traditions like these traveled around the world with the ppl back then and changed or didn't change at all... A reason why I love history :)
Noei H yes i do 2, even in the Netherlands the ways to celebrate differ. Google Sunneklaas, it's way different and not a child fest at all :D
God bless you guys!
+benski tv Thank you for your very kind comment!
+Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc. Anything for a true bunch of Americans.
What a great cake. It looks amazing. Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. You do a fantastic job.
Looks awesome. Taste even better. Thanks for sharing.
It's Pagan!! 12 days of Christmas which begin on Christmas day and end on January 6 originally came from the 12 days of Yuletide which began at sunset on December 20, known as Mother Night, and ended on the night of December 31, the Night of the Oak King and the Roman day of Hecate. There is no coincidence that the true Twelfth Night is now celebrated as New Year's Eve and with the same old revelry as when it was known as Twelfth Night.
The first NY police force was formed in the mid 1700's(although Christmas was banned), because of the revelry and mayhem of those who celebrated it...they would even run naked thru the streets during that time, and performed yule orgies...which is why there is a yule log
You must be fun at parties.
From sunset 12/20 to 12/31 sunset is only 11 days.. how is it 12 days??!!! Unless you consider 1/1st the 12th day? Otherwise it would’ve to start 12/19th then
You sure are mixing mythologies there.
Blessed be
Any chance you will offer just the wood hoop as well as the full sieve for sale? Save us a little money and we wouldn't be wasting the sieve part :-)
I enjoyed watching you guys make this recipe!
Thank you for making this video. We're going to try that in a modern kitchen. Happy New Year to you all.
Yes, we do "do that" (12 days of Christmas) here in America. It is a Christian tradition carried on in Anglican / Episcopal churches.
...and Catholic.
Greeting form GB. You can plump the currants up in cold tea. sherry or brandy. We take the Christmas tree down on the 12th night.
Carolanne Titmus Thanks for the tip, as I have no other need for a bottle of brandy.
Absolutely nothing makes me feel as wholesome as these videos do
Merry Christmas for both of you and your family.
Do you drink the gill of brandy or soak the fruit in it before adding it to the batter? Or do you wrap the cake in cheesecloth and soak it in brandy? Personally, I would use three gills of brandy; one to sip on whilst baking, one to soak the fruit in and one to soak the cloth in to store the cake. Thanks for making these videos guys.
Soak the fruit in it.
Traditionally in the UK we "feed" the cake with it. Often with heavier cakes the batter is made up and matured for some time before cooking. Over a period of time the alcohol is drizzled in and the mixture given a stir. (The booze preserves the mixture during this process. Christmas cakes/puddings are often started 6-12 weeks before the big day).
Similarly once the cake is baked it is left to mature and darken. Small holes are poked into the top with a skewer and over a period of days more brandy is "fed" into the cake by drizzling it over the surface so it soaks in.
(You really shouldn't drive after eating one of those things! :)
This comment made my day, thanks.