Twelve Days of Irish Holiday Traditions: Get Cooking

Inspired by that traditional carol, and the funny Irish version, Christmas Countdown, we're bringing you Twelve Days of Christmas (Traditions). These Irish traditions make the season so special for so many on the Emerald Isle. You may even want to try one for yourself!

Day 3 - Get Cooking

Our next tradition is not to everyone’s taste. But you’d be hard pressed to find a table in Ireland on the big day that won’t be graced by at least one of these traditional Christmas treats - a Christmas pudding or a Christmas cake.

Christmas Cake: So good they made three!

You’ll find a recipe for Christmas cake and a few other Irish festive treats here. Making one of these cakes is no mean feat and to do it right it takes weeks! But Christmas cake was so central to celebrations in Ireland in years gone by that not one, or two, but three of them would be made to last the season! The night the first one was eaten, Christmas Eve, was known as the night of the cakes and served with whiskey, punch, fruit wine or tea. Sounds good to us. The other two cakes were saved for New Years Eve and Nollaig na mBan.

These days they are simply referred to by many as “The Cake,” as in "who's bringing THE cake." They aren't everyone's top Christmas dessert, but you'll be hard pressed to find an Irish home without one! And with their ornate decorations, they are a tradition that is hard to beat.

Christmas Pudding

Another famous festive dessert - this one makes an appearance in the Christmas Carol and is traditional across the UK. It was the Victorian era before Christmas pudding made it to Ireland. But it's been well and truly adopted at this stage. Just like "the cake", nearly every home will have one come Christmas, and there are plenty of superstitions that go into the making off this dense treat.

Pudding superstitions

Firstly, ideally you'd make your pudding on the last weekend of November before the start of advent. Just like Christmas cake, a pudding benefits from having time for the flavors to mingle and mature. Second, it should be made with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 apostles. Third it should be stirred by every member of the family, clockwise from east to west, reportedly to honor the three wise men on their journey. Finally the children of the house, and especially the youngest, can make a silent wish while they stir. If they tell it to no one it has a chance of coming true! My memories of this as a child are that stirring the mix is pretty tricky! Depending on how small your helpers are, they may need help!

Here in Ireland, the timing for pudding and cake making usually coincides with the Late Late Toy show, another Irish Christmas institution, so many families combine these two traditions.

Recipe for Fortune telling Christmas pudding

Just like the Halloween brack, many families put coins or gold rings in their pudding to see who will have good fortune in the coming year depending on what they find in their slice. We will leave those additions up to you. But here is our recipe for Christmas Pudding:

Ingredients

• 110g / 4 oz each of raisins, currents, and sultanas (Our North American friends tell us currents can be hard to find - if you can’t get them just make up the amount with the dried fruits you can get e.g. golden raisins or try adding other tart dried fruit like cranberries to make it your own).
• 110g / 4 oz chopped mixed or candied peel (if you can’t find this you can leave it out or add a little thick peeled marmalade to give similar taste and texture)
• 110g / 4 oz chopped Glacé or maraschino cherries (without the stalks or pips)
• 50g / 2 oz breadcrumbs
• 110g / 4 oz dark brown or muscovado sugar
• 75g / 3 oz plain flour
• 50g / 2 oz chopped almonds
• ½ tsp mixed spice (this is a mix of spices including allspice, mace, coriander, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. You can make your own if you can’t find it or use pumpkin spice mix which has some of these)
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 beaten eggs
• 4 oz /110g melted butter (this should be salted Irish butter ideally - it has a higher fat content which adds a richness to this recipe and the salt is a nice counterpoint to the sweet fruit and sugar)
• 1 large cooking apple grated (this can be another 1 or two tart apples like granny smith if you can’t find a big cooking apple)
• 110ml or ¼ pint of stout (Guinness or any other you can get your hands on)
• 1 healthy measure whiskey or brandy

Method

1. If you have the time, soak the dried fruit overnight in the stout and whiskey or brandy
2. Mix the wet ingredients together in one bowl (including the fruit and nuts)
3. Sift the dry ingredients together in another larger bowl
4. Add your wet ingredients to your dry and mix together, making sure everyone gets a turn to stir.
5. Place the thoroughly stirred mix in a well greased, 2 pint pudding bowl.
6. Cover the top of the pudding with a disc of greaseproof or parchment paper and cover with a tightly fitting lid.
7. Place the pudding bowl into a large, lidded saucepan with water halfway up the side of the pudding dish.
8. Bring the water to the boil and then reduce to a low simmer.
9. Steam the pudding for five to six hours, making sure to keep the water level up. You don’t want to boil a dry pot!
10. Carefully remove the pudding dish from the pot and take off the lid and paper top, allowing the pudding to cool down.
11. Once cold, recover with fresh paper and store safely until you want to serve.
12. Reheat the pudding as it was cooked - in a pot half filled with boiling water for about 1 hr on Christmas day (You can also just microwave individual slices as you need it - just do it out of the eyeline of traditionalists!)
13. Garnish with a sprig of holly (everything in Ireland is decorated with holly at Christmas) -
14. Pour a measure of brandy over the top of the pudding and set it alight at the table for a traditional flourish. Just be sure to take out the sprig of holly first if you plan to go for this dramatic presentation!
15. Serve with brandy butter, custard or ice cream (not traditional but good!). And if you have any leftovers, try it broken up and stirred into vanilla ice cream - delicious!

What's Next?

Check back in with us tomorrow for Day 4 of our Twelve Days of Irish Christmas traditions. You might also like to see our Twelve Days of Christmas offers too!