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Making puddings and cakes is a particular kind of Christmas cooking. The hero dish on the big day is the turkey, but both the turkey and the traditional Christmas pudding are emblems of the whole season. I would feel that Christmas was incomplete if I didn’t pour a small ladleful of flaming brandy over the pudding and carry it to the table. It’s theatre. I also make an alternative dessert for those who don’t want to eat the traditional pudding – trifle, mulled-wine jelly, festive bread-and-butter pudding made with mincemeat, apples, cranberries and whisky – though there are places I don’t want to go. Tiramisu, requested one year, seemed a step too far.
Puddings, and other sweet things, are where you can go over the top, create magic. Gild Christmas brownies with edible gold leaf, cover a fruitcake with glowing glacé fruits… Thumbprint cookies, the little hollow in the middle filled with crimson jam, look like the buttons on a toy soldier’s coat, and a towering layer cake filled with spiced fruit is gasp-worthy.
Some of the creations here take a bit of time, but there’s something in me that wants to clear the decks and spend a day working on a cake that spells Christmas. It takes me back to a period in my life when I sprinkled glitter on homemade cards and sewed red felt stars to hang on the tree. Allow yourself to embrace creativity and cook some things that are entirely unnecessary but will fill you with joy.
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