The Twelve Cakes of Christmas

Many popular recipes come from lineages that can be traced back for decades, even centuries. For at least 2,000 years, festive cakes have been made in December, and, using archaeological evidence and ancient books, The Twelve Cakes of Christmas defines the key ingredients of the cakes that would eventually be served on Twelfth Night at the end of the Christmas season. From 17th-century English cookbooks, the book identifies recipes that would have been made as twelfth cakes, full of expensive ingredients, such as raisins, almonds, sweet wine, and candied peel, but made like fruit-breads, with yeast. In the 18th century, a revolution in mixing occurred. Ingredient proportions followed the new pound cake principle, and, for the first time, butter and sugar were creamed together. The Victorian age saw Twelfth Night customs give way to those associated with Christmas Day. In the colonies, growing demand for rich Christmas cakes resulted in the renaming of a range of recipes. Plum cakes, rich fruit cakes, and wedding cakes were all co-opted as Christmas cakes. The Christmas cakes of the 20th century are a special focus of this book. Nine cake recipes are featured here: four derived from pound cakes and five highlighting new methods of mixing or new ingredients. The cakes' family histories are tracked and the book also shows how New Zealand cooks modified each recipe and developed new variations.