Fruitcake from Around the World

Today we are looking at a classic with different versions from all over the world. Yes, we are looking at Christmas fruitcake. You either hate it or love it but you’ll see so much of it during the holiday season. We’ll take a look at the different variations from around the world first of all and then we’ll share with you a classic North American fruitcake recipe!

The earliest instance of fruitcake was said to be in ancient Rome and it was a barley mash mixed with pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins. Another early instance was in the Middle Ages which was similar but honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added.

There are about 20 different countries that are known for their own version of Christmas fruitcake. They are Australia, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Anglophone Caribbean, UK, and the USA. Take a look at the chart below to see how the different countries put their own twists on the Christmas fruitcake.

Country:	Notable Ingredients or Facts:
Australia	Eaten all year round with no icing.
Bahamas	Drenched with rum. All the candied fruits, walnuts, and raisins are covered in a container for 2-3 months with rum. Once cake is baked it is covered in rum while still warm.
Bulgaria	Consumed through the year. Contains flour, butter, oil, milk, yeast, yogurt, eggs, cocoa, walnuts, and raisins. Baked in a bundt pan.
Canada	Eaten at Christmastime and rarely seen other times of the year. Similar to the UK version. Usually in the shape of a loaf with no icing or alcohol.
Chile	Called Pan de Pascua. Sweet sponge cake flavoured with honey and ginger and has candied fruit, raisins, walnuts, and almonds
France	Called gâteau aux fruits.
Germany	More of a sweet bread. Made with yeast, butter, water, flour, citrus zest, candied citrus peel, raisins, and almonds. Usually has powdered sugar on the outside.
India	Dense cake with fruits, nuts, and spices.
Ireland	Eaten at Halloween. Often contains small tokens as a treat for those who find them.
Italy	Called Panforte. It’s a chewy dense cake with strong spice flavours and filled with dried candied fruits. Also has a version called Panettone usually in a cylinder “cupola” shape which is more of a sweet bread with dried fruit and spices.
New Zealand	Sold throughout the year. A lighter coloured cake. Most are tiered and iced. Includes multiple dried fruits and brandy or sherry.
Philippines	Called Crema de Fruta. Made with layers of sponge cake, custard or whipped cream, gelatin, and fresh fruits like pineapple, cherries, strawberries, and mangoes.
Poland	Loaf shaped sponge cake with nuts, figs, raisins, and candied fruits.
Portugal	Called Bolo Rei. The cake is round with a hole in the center and is made with raisins, nuts, and crystallized fruit. Included is a fava bean and whoever gets it has to pay for the Bolo Rei next year.
Romania	Called Cozonac is a loaf shaped cake with raisins, lemon or orange zest, vanilla, walnuts, hazelnuts, and rum. Topped with poppy seeds.
Spain	Similar to the Panforte and includes fig, almonds, walnuts, and flavourings.
Switzerland	Dense sweet cake with candied fruits and nuts.
Anglophone Caribbean	Black cake almost like a figgy pudding with lots of dried fruit and rum/wine.
UK	Round cake with marzipan on the top and then covered with Royal Icing. Can be light to rich and moist. Will contain candied fruit, nuts, spices, and sometime alcohol.
USA	Rich in fruit and nuts. Some are saturated with alcohol but many left plain. Usually quite dense and in loaf form.

Traditional Canadian Fruitcake Recipe

Ingredients:

4 cups of candied mixed peel

3 cups of seeded raisins, light ones

1 cup of dark raisins

1 cup of currents

1 cup of halved candied cherries

1 cup of brandy

1 cup of rum

½ cup of candied pineapple

1 ¼ cup of brown sugar

1 cup of butter, softened

3 eggs

2 tsp. of vanilla

2 cups of flour

1 ½ tsp. of baking powder

1 tsp. of cinnamon

1 tsp. of nutmeg

½ tsp. of salt

½ tsp. of cloves

1 cup of chopped pecans

1 cup of blanched almonds

How to:

In large bowl, stir candied peel, dark raisins, currants, cherries, brandy and pineapple; cover with plastic wrap. Let stand for 12 hours or microwave on High for 3 minutes or until steaming; stir.

In mixer bowl, beat butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time; beat in vanilla.

In separate bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cloves. Stir into batter, one-third at a time.

Scrape fruit mix over batter and then sprinkle with pecans and almonds. Stir to coat fruit and nuts.

Spoon batter into two 9- x 5-inch and one 5-3/4- x 3-1/4-inch parchment lined loaf pans, packing with back of spoon. Tap lightly on counter.

Bake at 300 degrees for 1-1/4 hours for small loaf and 2 hours for large loaves.

Allow to cool in pans on a rack for 30 minutes. Turn out, right side up, onto rack; let cool completely.

Remove the paper and wrap in plastic wrap and foil. Store in cool place for up to 2 months.

Eggnog

This week we are going with a Christmas classic and that is eggnog. We’re used to drinking variations of eggnog in Canada and the US but the origin of eggnog is said to be in the UK.

In early Medieval Britain a drink called posset was consumed and that is what the first eggnog is thought to be. Posset was hot milk curdled with wine or ale and then had spices added. Sounds a lot like eggnog. Posset was also used as a cold and flu remedy and sometimes had eggs added to it as well. As time went on British Aristocrats started drinking eggnog because it contained milk, eggs, and sherry which were foods consumed by the wealthy. Eventually eggnog made its way to North America and President Washington began serving it to visitors and added lots and lots of different types of alcohol.

Over the years eggnog has changed and depending on where you are can have different types of alcohol added. Some of the alcohol that may be in your eggnog are brandy, rum, bourbon, sherry, and cognac.

Most eggnog recipes will include milk or cream, raw eggs (make sure they are pasteurized), sugar, spices (cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg), vanilla, and often times alcohol. The ones you buy in a carton at the store of course will be non-alcoholic but you can add flavours into it when you serve it.

Fun fact, a Tom and Jerry is a hot eggnog cocktail that contains brandy and rum. Another fun fact, a nog or noggin was a Middle English word for a wooden mug for serving alcohol.

Instead of making actual eggnog, this week we made an eggnog pudding and it was delicious. So take a look at what we made with our featured Christmas traditional food.

Eggnog Pudding Recipe

1/3 cup of sugar

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

¼ tsp. of salt

2 ¼ cups of eggnog

3 egg yolks

1 ½ tsp. of vanilla

2 cups of whipped cream for the topping

In a heavy saucepan whisk the sugar, salt, and cornstarch.

Gradually whisk in the eggnog and egg yolks.

Set over medium heat and stir constantly until the pudding bubbles and thickens.

Remove the pot from the stove and add in the vanilla.

Transfer the pudding to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding. Let it cool slightly before putting in the fridge for about 3 hours to set.

While the pudding is setting, you can whip up some cream.

After the 3 or so hours are up, dish your pudding into ramekins and top with whipped cream. You can set out cinnamon, nutmeg, and sprinkles to top your pudding. I even tried milk chocolate chips and that was divine! Enjoy!

Lithuania and Denmark Drinks

On our first food tradition post we are going to Lithuania and Denmark to take a look at a couple of common Christmas drinks.

Denmark is located in Northern Europe and consists of the peninsula of Jutland along with 443 named islands (74 are inhabited); many of the islands are connected by bridges! The largest cities are Copenhagen (the capital), Aarhus, Aalborg, and Odense. Fun fact, Lego was created in Denmark in 1932 by a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen who hailed from Billund, Denmark.

Glogg is a traditional Christmas drink from Denmark. It is a spiced mulled wine that is served warm. Originally it was called Glogi and was consumed by messengers and postmen who travelled long and far on horseback or on skis in the very cold weather.

Traditional Glogg is made by firstly boiling water and then adding spices to it. Common spices are cloves, cinnamon, ginger, orange peel, and cardamom. It is then simmered for a few minutes and then strained and after that blackcurrant juice and wine or other clear spirits are added to it. Often raisins and almonds are added to this drink as well.

Check out this recipe...

1 bottle of red wine

½ cup of sugar

2 tbsp. of orange zest

2 tbsp. of raisins

1 tbsp. of cardamom

2 tbsp. of ginger

1 stick of cinnamon

8 cloves

1 ½ cups of bourbon or vodka

Combine all of the ingredients in a large pot. Heat to 175 degrees Fahrenheit and simmer for 2 minutes.

Remove from the heat and let it stand for 1 hour.

Strain the spices out and add 1 extra tsp. of raisins. Garnish with an orange slice.

Lithuania is located in the Baltic region of Europe. It is located on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea and boarders Latvia, Belarus, Poland, and the Kaliningrad region of Russia. It has lots of rolling hills, forests, rivers, and streams. It has 108 km of Baltic seashore with many sandy beaches that attract lots of tourists. A couple fun facts about Lithuania, basketball is the most popular sport in the country, Lithuania has one of the oldest languages in the world today, and every St. Patrick’s Day the river Vilnia is dyed bright Emerald green!

Poppy milk is a sweet warm Lithuanian Christmas drink usually drunk with holiday dinner. It is made with two cups of poppy seeds that are soaked in hot water for a day or so until the seeds become soft. Change the water over this time. Crush the seeds in the food processor until a white milky liquid appears. Add some cool water and then strain the seeds and crush them over again. Do this quite a few times to get a good concentrated poppy milk flavour. Dilute the concentrate the you make with some cold boiled water and then finally add some honey or sugar to get the sweet flavour of your choice.

Christmas Foods from around the World

Apple blogs are over and now as we enter into November, we have to think about Christmas. I know it seems early but this year it’s creeping up so fast. I can’t believe that it is November already! We probably always say that every year at this time.

We always love a good theme for Christmas time and this year it won’t be different. We’ve done gifts, 12 Days of Christmas, traditions, posts inspired by our cards and that’s just a few that we have done in past years. This year we’re looking at traditional foods served at or around Christmas time. Some of our posts will be inspired by the type of food that we’re looking at and some posts will be actual recipes that we try out (we might add a little twist to them, we’ll have to see).

We’ll be taking a look at foods from all over the world including the all famous Christmas fruit cake popular in all parts of the world with different takes in different places. You either love it or hate it. We’ll also go to Germany and look at the Stollen which is what they are known for and look at Iceland’s Roast Lamb as well as checking out Canada and all its cookies.

So get cozy and festive and get ready for seven weeks of yummy recipes and fun Christmas crafts.