Twelfth Night

[callenish gunner]

As we prepare for Twelfth Night I'm teaching Gretchen about Scottish Black Bun. It's the cake that most Americans seem to not enjoy; it's a rich fruitcake inside a pastry crust, flavoured with spices and whiskee. Ever since I first came to the states 40 years ago I have yet to understand most Americans' reticence regarding fruitcake. not that in the end I mind it(since it has always lead to more for me )

Tuesday's Dinner will begin with:

Roast Elk(since I can't get Red Stag)

Mashed Buttered Turnips with chives

Broccoli in Stilton cheese sauce

SCOTTISH BLACK BUN

This cake in a crust is the traditional New Year cake in Scotland. This one is from a family recipe book

Preparation

First make a 1lb weight of short crust pastry your usual method(double pie crust). Leave to chill.

Take a springform (if possible) 6 in. tall cake tin, and line with baking parchment. Set aside.

Mix together

1teaspoon each of cinnamon, ground ginger, 1/4 fresh grated nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon white pepper.

Weigh into large bowl 10oz plain flour and 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda, mix well. Add 4oz Demerara sugar, then the spices, and weigh in 1lb currants, 1lb raisins, 4oz broken or flaked almonds, 4oz mixed candied peel.

Mix altogether well.

Add two beaten eggs, 5 tablespoons buttermilk (or milk will do) & two or three tablespoons whiskee. Mix to a stiff sticky dough.

Roll out 2/3rds of the pastry and line the caketin with this. Press the fruit mixture into the pastry shell so that it is filled densely. Roll out the rest of the pastry to form a lid, and put on top in the usual way, moistening the edges with water to make them stick.

Take a long skewer, and pierce several times, right through the cake till you feel the tip touch the tin bottom. Brush the lid with a mixture of egg and milk, and bake in a pre-heated oven at 325 Fahrenheit; 170 Centigrade for about three hours. Test with skewer, when it is done, the skewer will not have any cake mix sticking to it.

Serve with coffee, or as we Scots do, with a wee dram of whiskee!

[Quartermaster James]

I have yet to understand most Americans' reticence regarding fruitcake.

With all due respect Sir, you have been too long among Yankees.

The South loves fruitcake. Your's appears a mighty fine recipe.

[Bos'n Cross]

.....iv never had it....my parents hate of it has deprived me the chance at even a taste............my twelve days of christmas have always been both fruitcake and figgy pudding-less........and i never did get ANY golden rings.........i must say your recipe make it look to be quite good.....but a baker, i am not.........enjoy it my good sir!

[callenish gunner]

Since most of the family is spread far and wide and unable to join us for Twelfth Night it's just the 3 of us and there is always too much food

[michaelsbagley]

I was wondering if the aversion to fruitcake was an all Americans or regional thing... It seems I am the only person I know in Ohio that likes fruitcake (or at least the only person I know that I have asked, it doesn't come up in conversation often ).

Never heard of a fruitcake type dish in a pie crust, but it sounds interesting... To be honest that recipe almost sounds like a closer cousin of "Mincemeat" or "Sweatmeat" than fruitcake, but it sounds good all the same. (An I might be barking semantics here )

[Red Sea Trade]

I maintain that the secret to any successful member of the fruitcake family is moisture, preferably of 80 proof or better. I make plum puddings in late November, then soak them in a fragrant bath of dark rum, brandy, bourbon, applejack and a dash of sherry. Let them soak for a month and it is rare for any but the most timid eater to resist their siren allure.

In fact, my wedding cake was a plum pudding (as I was married at Christmastime). We saved the unused portion, dosed it with overproof rum, sealed it in a tupperware container and stuck it in the back of the fridge for a year, moistening it on occasion. We served it for our first anniversary and WOW was it fine!

[Quartermaster James]

Perhaps it was the temperance movement that began bad-mouthing fruitcake!

[callenish gunner]

I've just finished next years fruitcakes ...12 of them securely wrapped in cheesecloth and stacked tightly in a crock filled with Ginger Brandy and Black Rum ...will refill the crock come the first of July with Brandy and Rum not cakes. At least we will feast on fruitcake and Christmas Pudding( Salty and my kids and I love them) ...I'm on a personal quest to correct the narrow minds of those who would rather re-gift a fruitcake rather than to actually eat one!

[Quartermaster James]

I've just finished next years fruitcakes ...12 of them securely wrapped in cheesecloth and stacked tightly in a crock filled with Ginger Brandy and Black Rum ...will refill the crock come the first of July with Brandy and Rum not cakes.

Dear Lord,

I, a humble pyrate, who has rare the goodly

or decent thought, who has not habit of

kind and caring consideration of his

fellow man, and who so much more rarely

lets thought of your work cross his

puny mind;

I, a humble pyrate, beseech you Lord:

Let Callenish Gunner be my Secret Santa this year!