Christmas in Yorkshire

Today is the first day of Spring, so I thought it high time I caught up with our Winter shenanigans. Starting with Christmas in Yorkshire! 

We didn't think we'd be here for more than two Christmases, so we didn't ship all of our Christmas decorations to England. Why would we need those?! Our first Christmas here I bought a second-hand Christmas tree, which turned out to be a fairly wise investment for £20. It worked nicely our first year; our second year the kittens chewed through the string of pre-lit lights, so for when Grace destroyed the tree this third year in our care, I didn't even care. The tree has since been boxed up and taken to the tip (dump). If we're here next year, I will buy a new, fake tree and keep my fingers crossed that it will be in re-sellable condition when we prep for our return to the US. 

Grace posing in front of her work of art

This is also the third year I've made a Christmas Cake. Although it's not a difficult cake to make, you have to start it all the way back in October. Once made, you leave it to mature, brushing it periodically with your liquor of choice (I used spiced rum) until the day before you want to dig into it. 

Matured fruit cake, AKA Christmas Cake

 When you're ready to decorate the cake, you first spread warmed apricot jam all over the top, before...

Marzipan'd fruitcake

topping it with a rolled out layer of marzipan. You smooth everything down, and then top that with a rolled out layer of...

Fondant'd fruit cake

fondant. Once the fondant is on, you're pretty much ready to decorate however you'd like. I have accumulated star and tree punch-outs, as well as quite a lot of edible glitters and dyes. As you can see, I went to town. I took the cake to our friend's Christmas Eve open house party, and thankfully, only brought a small portion back home with me. I'm open to ideas for next year's Christmas Cake theme… :-) 

Finished masterpiece

Another thing I have been doing since we arrived in England is making a Christmas pudding. The pudding consists of a lot of the same ingredients as the Christmas cake, only it's steamed in a pudding bowl (similar to a double boiler) for five hours, then wrapped up and set to mature for several months. On the day you eat it, you re-steam it for 2-1/2 hours, then light it on fire with spiced rum. This ensures a good time is had by all! 

Christmas pudding

Christmas pudding