5th January - Baby-Cake
For the Tudors Christmas ended on Twelfth Night, it was on this day that parties were held all over the country. To put this into some kind of perspective, for them it was like our New Year celebrations. At court this would have been celebrated with magnificence, there was masques, plays and a banquet in which many dishes would have been served. For the banquet it was tradition for a cake to be made known as the Twelfth Night Cake. It was common for the cake to be made from dried fruit, flour, honey and spices, there was also a coin or bean somewere inside the cake. Whoever found it was King or Queen of the Coin, Bean or Pea for the evening, they were then put in a chair and had to chalk crosses on the ceiling to ward off evil spirits. This person would then lead the dancing and singing, on many occations the person had already been selected just to be on the safe side.
As time went on the Victorians added their own take on the tradition and would add charms or coins, this possibly paved the way for Christmas pudding.
Below is a genuine Twelfth Night Cake recipe;
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
5/8 cup currants
3/4 cup sultanas
11/3 cup shredded mixed peel
5/8 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp molasses
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp all spice
11/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Method
I. Cream together buter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time beating thoroughly after adding.
II.Warm the molasses and milk and add them to the butter, sugar and eggs, beat briskly.
III. Sift a little flour over the fruit to prevent falling to bottom of pan.
IV. Sift together flour and spices and mix into batter, stirring lightly.
V. Hide a bean and a pea in the batter.
VI. Fold all the fruit in last of all.
VII. Line a bread tin with wax paper, pour mixture and back in a slow oven (250 f) for 2-21/4 hours.
VIII. Serve once cooled.
It was common for the monarch to put on entertainment for everyone in the court to enjoy, these consisted of plays, masques, singing, dancing and banquets. The King and Queen would have their banquet with their guests in private. This was also the last day in which the Lord of Misrule was in charge, so many of the festivities were appropriately riotous as many rules and self control had gone out the window.
Many of us today have no idea when to take down our decorations, but for the Tudors it was bad luck to leave them up after midnight on Twelfth Night. For others decotations stayed up till Candlemas on the 2nd Febuary. When the Yule Log had burnt itselft out a piece was kept for next year, while some of the ashes were kept to protect the house and the rest was used as fertiliser.
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