XXXmas baking
My childhood Christmas fantasy was always a Northern Hemisphere-tinged version of this ultimate holiday season. Mittens, snow, sleigh bells, mistletoe, roasted chestnuts and dried fruit puddings. It was a ‘traditional’ Christmas that made no sense in Sydney, soaked as we were in sun and sweat year after year as my father, with a paper crown lightly plastered to his forehead by effort, perspiration and steam, plunged a blunt bread knife into the roast turkey.
Even with an air-conditioning upgrade, I couldn’t stomach the idea of all that hot food. We could have been feasting on chilled oysters, prawns, cold ham and salad, followed by sweet cherries and mangoes. And I suspected we often suffered from dry turkey because the beast continued cooking in the blistering Summer heat long after it left the oven. These days, our family celebrates the middle ground. Cold food, plus some hot food that if served even only moderately warm, will be no cause for complaint.
But, for dessert?
People who still opt for the more traditional approach might make a concession especially when it comes to the last course. Stirring crumbled pudding into store bought vanilla ice-cream before setting it in the freezer again is occasionally made a little more fancy with the addition of booze or toasted spices to qualify it as a “recipe”. I must admit, I like this approach. Learning from past experience however, I’ve decided against transporting anything frozen to a family dinner since it often arrives in the form a puddle, forcing me to hastily reinvent my dish as a chilled custard or dessert soup.
This year, if Santa doesn’t bring a heatwave, I will bake. It’ll be a variation on one of my favourite recipes made extra small, extra cute and extra delicious with limes and blackberries – both of which are plentiful and cheap at the moment. Of course, there’s always a plan B, which I shall mention in my next post.
What will you be baking for Christmas?
Rosa said,
December 9, 2012 @ 8:46 pm
Lovely mini bundt cakes! I love that flavor.
Cheers,
Rosa
Caitlin said,
December 10, 2012 @ 1:59 am
Poppyseed icing sounds amazing. And I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t have the northern hemisphere holiday season – Christmas without hot cocoa, roasts, and things of the sort just wouldn’t be Christmas.
Julia | JuliasAlbum.com said,
December 10, 2012 @ 7:26 am
These look gorgeous! Love my bundt pan but don’t have mini-bundt molds. How perfect for Christmas!
The Food Sage said,
December 10, 2012 @ 12:12 pm
I always make chocolate Christmas puddings. They’re a little over-indulgent … but that’s what Christmas is about, right??
e / dig in hobart said,
December 10, 2012 @ 12:29 pm
now that i live in hobart, hot weather at christmas is long gone – we usually have to wear jumpers and ugg boots with our party dresses! (not a good look). so we usually do the trad roast just to keep warm (but never turkey). this year though, the weather is already hot, so keep your fingers crossed – maybe i can wear a sundress on christmas day after all!
Y said,
December 10, 2012 @ 1:01 pm
e / dig in hobart : Jumpers during Christmas sounds so cosy. Actually I had always been under the impression that Hobart never had heat waves until I experienced one during my last trip there!
Helen (Grab Your Fork) said,
December 10, 2012 @ 2:09 pm
Is there anything more enticing than messy rivers of icing? I wouldn’t say no to your dessert soup but I have to admit I was hoping for some raunchy dessert action when I saw the title of your post. lol!
Emma said,
December 11, 2012 @ 9:29 am
Love the decadence of all those poppy seeds. What a wonderful sounding cake!
I will be making lots of lefse for Christmas! …and probably plenty of other treatlets too, now that we have a generous heap of snow on the ground, and I’m feeling a mite peckish for Christmasy baked goods:)
milkteaxx said,
December 17, 2012 @ 5:34 pm
that poppyseed icing idea is amazing and unique! lovely!
Donna at NothingChocolate said,
February 15, 2013 @ 5:43 am
You take excellent food photos! You also have great skills styling the food! Great blog! Thanks for publishing!