Well I guess those who wish to celibrate "Christmas" can simply refuse to buy cookies from that particular girl scout troop, stay away from Leucadia, thus hurting their tourism income, and oh gee the mountain dog club? It will be egnore them as usual....But now three local groups — a Girl Scouts troop, the Leucadia Town Council and the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of Southern California — have told the city they won't play in Dalager's parade because of the change.
Christmas cake is really made for the wrong holiday....its so horrible it should be called halloween cake....
This tops a segment from last nights RAW from Baghram AFB in term of rediculousness and fantasy.Originally Posted by TopHatsLiberal
Just to compare:
Last nights episode of RAW had one of the bad guys as a camo wearing santa clause cancelling holiday after holiday, then said he's cancelling everybody's leave, and all but cleared the stands by all the boos he got.
Christ, you Americans have no feeling for tradition.
Never heard of a Christmas cake? The Englishmen and their erstwhile colonies are very tradition bound and very propah.
There is still time for Christmas. Do have this traditional Christmas cake for your folks and give them a surprise. Also, do a quick course to change your accent to something that one understand in areas (British Empire) where the sun does not set!
Traditional Christmas cake
fruit cake
Silvana Franco
by Silvana Franco
from The Best
Makes 23cm/9in cake
Preparation time overnight
Cooking time over 2 hours
Vegetarian
Ingredients
For the cake:
500g/1lb 2oz sultanas
255g/9oz lexia raisins
200g/7oz glacé cherries, halved
110g/4oz currants
110g/4oz cut mixed peel
110g/4oz ready-to-eat dried figs, roughly chopped
110g/4oz ready-to-eat dried apricots, roughly chopped
110g/4oz ready to-eat dried pitted prunes, roughly chopped
150ml/5fl oz brandy
1 small orange, grated zest and juice
255g/9oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g/7oz dark muscovado sugar
5 medium eggs
300g/10½oz plain flour
200g/7oz macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
For the decoration:
3 tbsp apricot jam
500g/1lb 2oz white marzipan
140g/5oz ready-to-roll white icing
packet royal icing mix
silver balls, to decorate
icing sugar, to dust
Method
1. Put the sultanas, raisins, glacéé cherries, currants, peel, figs, apricots and prunes in a large bowl and pour over the brandy, orange zest and juice. Mix well, cover and leave to stand overnight.
2. Line the base of a 23cm/9in cake tin with a double thickness of parchment paper. Line the sides of the tin with a double thickness of parchment paper, so that it comes 4-5cm/1½-2in above the edge of the tin. Wrap a sheet of folded newspaper around the outside of the tin and secure with string. Stand the prepared tin on a folded sheet of newspaper on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little of the flour if the mixture starts to curdle. Add the fruit, its soaking liquid and the nuts and mix well. Stir in the flour, taking care not to over mix it. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake for 3-4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. If the top of the cake starts to get too brown, cover with a sheet of baking parchment.
4. When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and leave to cool completely in the tin. Store the cake in an airtight tin, wrapped in greaseproof paper and foil for between two and three months. Feed the cake with brandy every 2-3 weeks until you are ready to decorate it.
5. Pass the jam through a sieve and warm it in a pan with 1 tbsp of water. Invert the cake onto a serving plate or board. Use a little of the marzipan to fill any gaps between the cake and the plate. Brush the jam all over the cake. Roll out the remaining marzipan and lift carefully onto the cake, easing it around the sides. Trim off any excess with a sharp knife.
6. Roll out the ready-to-roll icing to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness and cut out as many star shapes as you can, re-rolling the trimmings. Set aside on parchment paper to harden. Meanwhile, make up the royal icing according to the instructions on the packet. Spread the icing over the cake to cover it, then roughly peak it using a spatula. Arrange the stars on top and scatter over the silver balls. Leave the icing to harden, then dust the cake with icing sugar.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/da...as_14567.shtml
Got the receipe right from the Queen's propaganda machinery!
Merry Christmas and damn the Happy Holiday greeting!
Last edited by Ray; 20 Dec 05, at 19:29.
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
The Story of the Christmas Cake
The Christmas Cake as we know it today comes from two customs which became one around 1870 in Victorian England. Originally there was a porridge, the origins of which go back to the beginnings of Christianity. Then there was a fine cake made with the finest milled wheatflour, this was baked only in the Great Houses, as not many people had ovens back in the 14th century.
PLUM PORRIDGE
Originally people used to eat a sort of porridge on Christmas Eve. It was a dish to line the stomach after a day's fasting, which people used to observe for Christmas Eve, or the 'Vigil' as it was called long ago. Gradually, they began to put spices, dried fruits, honey etc in the porridge to make it a special dish for Christmas. Much later it was turned into a pudding, because it got to be so stiff with all the fruits and things, that they would tie it in a cloth, and dunk it into a large cauldron of boiling water and boil it for many hours. This turned into Christmas Pudding.
PLUMCAKE
Later, around the 16th century, it became popular to add butter, replace the oatmeal with wheatflour, add eggs to hold it together better. This became boiled plumcake. So boiled plum pudding and boiled fruitcake existed side by side depending on which ingredients the housewife used.
Only big houseS had proper ovens to bake in. In the castles and fine homes, people would make a special cake for Easter, which was a rich fruitcake recipe with a topping of what we now call marzipan or almond paste. A similar cake was baked for the Christmas festivities, but whereas the Easter one was a plain cake with almonds, the Christmas one had dried fruits in season and spices. These represented the exotic spices of the East, and the gifts of the Wise Men . Such things were first brought to Europe and Britain particularly, by the Crusaders coming back from the wars in the Holy Land in the 12th century.
TWELFTH NIGHT CAKE
But it was not a Christmas cake, but a Twelfth Night Cake. Twelfth night is on the 5th January, and has been for centuries the traditional last day of the Christmas season.. It was a time for having a great feast, and the cake was an essential part of the festivities. This was slightly different in different countries, and also at different social levels.
In the GREAT HOUSES Into the cake was baked a dried Bean and a Pea. one in one half and the other in the other half. The cake was decorated with sugar, like our icing, but not so dense, and ornamentation. As the visitors arrived, they were given a piece of the cake, ladies from the left, gentlemen from the right side. Whoever got the bean became King of the Revels for the night, and eveyone had to do as he said. The lady was his Queen for the evening.
In smaller homes, the cake was a simple fruitcake, with a bean in it, which was given to guests during the twelve days of Christmas. Whoever got the bean was supposed to be a kind of guardian angel for that family for the year, so it was an important task, and usually, it was arranged that a senior member of the family would get the bean! This was observed until recently in Poland in fact.
In Britain the cake was baked as part of the refreshments offered to the priest and his entpourage who would visit on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th, to bless each house in the parish. this custom died out after the Reformation in the late 16th century.. In Mallorca, the main island of the Spanish Balearics Islands, they have a similar custom which takes place at Easter.
The festive cake in Britain was revived at the end of the 17th century, and became very much part of the Twelfth night partying again. It is recorded In royal households, that the cakes became extravagantly large, and the guests divided into two side could have a battle with models on the cake! One battle was a sea battle, and there were minature water canon on the cake which really worked!
TWELFTH NIGHT
This is the Church festival of Ephiphany. The traditional day when Christians celebrate the arrival of the Magi or Three Kings at Bethlehem. It used to be the time when people exchanged their Christmas gifts. The feast was marked, as were all the old feasts, by some kind of religious observance. A visit to the church, a service or some kind, and then a folk observance which was tightly wrapped up as part of the Church activities. As we have seen, Twelve Day (the day following Twelfth Night) entailed the blessing of the home, and in some countries is still observed. But after the Reformation, these customs of the Church were banned by the Puritans, and fell into disuse. Without its religious overtones, Twelfth Night became a time of mischief and over indulgence. By 1870, Britains Queen Victoria announced that she felt it was inappropriate to hold such an unchristian festival, and Twelfth Night was banned as a feastday.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE CHRISTMAS CAKE
The confectioners who made the cakes were left with boxes full of figurines and models for Twelfth Cakes, and also had lost revenue by the banning of the feast. So they began to bake a fruitcake and decorate it with snowy scenes, or even flower gardens and Italian romantic ruins. These they sold not for the 5th January, but for December Christmas parties. And it was thus that we developed the Christmas cake.
BOILED PLUM CAKE FOR THE COLONIES
People in Britain began to make the boiled fruitcake to send to their families who had gone to the new world colonies - in Australia, Canada, etc. and to send to those who worked on the missions. The boiled cakes lasted bestter than the baked ones, and in those days of the 19th century, they could take many weeks or months even to cross the world by ship. These cakes were usually sent as part of a Christmas Hamper of food and presents, and this way the tradition of Christmas cake, often eaten with a piece of cheese or apple pie, became known all over the world.
The Americans in turn were getting cakes sent from all parts of Europe by relatives in the 'Old Country'. Then in the 1890's a German immigrant opened a cake bakery in a small town, and began to bake cakes which the Americans in turn would send to their relatives back in Europe. This cake was based on a traditional Christmas cake, but contained many of the fruits which were grown in the Americas. This cake is now sent out to countries all over the world by the bakery, and is probably the most popular Christmas Cake today!
http://www.christmasarchives.com/christmascake.html
My aunt who is in Lesotho every years send us this cake from the US bakery.
We look forward to get this cake and so I never forget to send her a Christmas card just to ensure she does not forget!
It is a real wonderful cake and there is no doubt about that!
Last edited by Ray; 20 Dec 05, at 19:41.
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
My post was to cover the historical aspects of Christmas.Well said Brigadier. Overly-commercialized idolatry and paganism.
Is it any wonder I have no use for Christmas?
They're playing Christmas music at the office right now...I so desperately want to put a gun in my mouth and gently squeeze the trigger...
I love Christmas.
It is a time for cheer and having a jolly good tuck in apart from the revelry.
Join in the fun or else you may one day regret it!
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
Right around the 1770's when America was a british colony we screwed them before they screwed us. If I recall the impact the collapse of the British Empire had on India.
Christ, you Americans have no feeling for tradition.
Never heard of a Christmas cake? The Englishmen and their erstwhile colonies are very tradition bound and very propah.
Didn't mean to put words in your mouthMy post was to cover the historical aspects of Christmas.
I love Christmas.
It is a time for cheer and having a jolly good tuck in apart from the revelry.
Join in the fun or else you may one day regret it!
It's now been 30 years and I don't regert a single day of it
I think this is what we call fruit cake, Ray. I am afraid I cannot make one - I am not much of a baker when it comes to dessert things.
Christ, you Americans have no feeling for tradition.
Never heard of a Christmas cake? The Englishmen and their erstwhile colonies are very tradition bound and very propah.
"To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are."-Sholem Asch
"I always turn to the sports page first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."-Earl Warren
"I didn't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs."-Nancy Reagan, when asked a political question at a "Just Say No" rally
"He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules."-Earl Butz, on the Pope's attitude toward birth control
Sir,
That explaination is quite correct. A simple calculation can be made from the 8th December which is the "Feast of Immaculate Conception", 9 months from that day is around 8th/9th September, he was a Libran, since he represented Love.
After the Romans adopted Christianity they were at a loss for historical data relating date of birth of Jesus, so as you correctly stated the feast of the Sun god on 25th December was chosen.
Cheers!...on the rocks!!
Lemontree,
Even the Olympics is a remanent of the pagan days!
I am sure that you know that the Nagas, who are Christians also have incorporated the customs of their original religion which is pagan.
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
THL,
Call it what you may, but that is the as traditional as your turkey to the Thanksgiving that you observe.
You don't have to be a baker, THL. Just follow the steps, shove it in an oven or a microwave and Voila! you have your Christmas cake!
If Chan can cook, so can you!
Bon Apetit!
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
No, Really. I cannot bake. I don't know what it is. I can cook almost any kind of breakfast/lunch/dinner food, but when it comes to cake, cookies and that sort of thing...fuh-getta-bod-it.
My step-father is REALLY into Rocky and Bullwinkle so I bought a moose cookie cutter and made Bullwinkle cookies. Out of the 48 that I made, maybe 20 have any resemblence at all to a moose. Antlers were falling off, I was frosting the wrong part so instead of Bullwinkle being brown with yellow antlers, he was yellow with brown antlers, I completely forgot about the last ones I had in the oven and soon found that cookies cannot cook for 45 mintues and still resemble a cookie - all around it was a sad, sad situation for Bullwinkle Moose, Ray. Let me mention here also, that I did not even make the cookie dough myself, I bought cookie dough that was already made for these - and I still messed them up.
"To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are."-Sholem Asch
"I always turn to the sports page first, which records people's accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man's failures."-Earl Warren
"I didn't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs."-Nancy Reagan, when asked a political question at a "Just Say No" rally
"He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules."-Earl Butz, on the Pope's attitude toward birth control
THL,
OK I believe you.
If Chan can cook, THL CANT!
"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
HAKUNA MATATA
NOW ve get Moose and Squirrel!No, Really. I cannot bake. I don't know what it is. I can cook almost any kind of breakfast/lunch/dinner food, but when it comes to cake, cookies and that sort of thing...fuh-getta-bod-it.
My step-father is REALLY into Rocky and Bullwinkle so I bought a moose cookie cutter and made Bullwinkle cookies. Out of the 48 that I made, maybe 20 have any resemblence at all to a moose. Antlers were falling off, I was frosting the wrong part so instead of Bullwinkle being brown with yellow antlers, he was yellow with brown antlers, I completely forgot about the last ones I had in the oven and soon found that cookies cannot cook for 45 mintues and still resemble a cookie - all around it was a sad, sad situation for Bullwinkle Moose, Ray. Let me mention here also, that I did not even make the cookie dough myself, I bought cookie dough that was already made for these - and I still messed them up.
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