Book of Days Tales

Twelfth Night and Epiphany often get confused, but they are different.  Twelfth Night is the twelfth day of Christmas – duh !!! Count the days from December 25^th,  the first day of Christmas.  Epiphany is the next day – January 6^th, and marks the date that the magi arrived in Bethlehem.  So . . . which day counts as the end of the Christmas season?  Take your pick. In Victorian times (and earlier) Twelfth Night was the moment, and in more recent times Epiphany has taken over although by this time of the month people are generally back at work so that Christmas is long in the rear view mirror – decorations are put away, and it’s business as usual.  I find the situation sad, and always keep my decorations up until Epiphany when I take them down and make up a final plate of Christmas goodies.

Victorians made a special cake known as a Twelfth cake to be eaten at parties this evening, and the recipes are quite varied.  But . . . they were all made with great artistry. Here is one sample:

Ingredients

5 large free-range eggs

250g/9oz self-raising flour

250g/9oz caster sugar

250g/9oz butter, softened

75g/2½oz ground almonds

350g/12oz glacé cherries, washed, dried and quartered

200g tin pineapple pieces in natural juice, roughly chopped and dried well on kitchen paper

350g/12oz dried apricots, snipped into small pieces

350g/12oz sultanas

100g/3½oz chopped almonds

2 unwaxed lemons, finely grated zest only

To decorate

4 tbsp apricot jam, warmed

500g/1lb 2oz golden marzipan

1kg/2lb 4oz gold fondant icing

metallic classic gold food color dust

100g/3½oz white fondant icing

edible silver balls

75g/2½oz icing sugar, sieved

edible floral cake lace

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160° C/320° F. Grease and line a 23cm/9in deep, round cake tin with a single layer of baking paper.
2. Measure the eggs, butter, flour, sugar and ground almonds into a bowl and whisk together. Add the chopped almonds, lemon zest and dried fruit. Mix well, spoon into the tin and level off the top.
3. Bake for 2¼–2½ hours until golden-brown. You may need to cover with foil if it’s getting too brown.
4. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, before removing onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely .
5. To decorate, remove the baking paper and place the cake on a gold cake board. Brush with the apricot jam.
6. Lightly dust a work surface with a little icing sugar and roll out the marzipan to a circle slightly bigger than the cake. Cover and smooth over the surface and sides. Brush with a light sprinkling of water.
7. Lightly dust a work surface with a little icing sugar. Roll out the gold icing to a circle slightly bigger than the cake. Cover the marzipan and smooth the surface. Trim the excess icing, (reserve this for later) then tuck under the cake. Brush with the gold dust to create a metallic finish.
8. Wrap the lace around the bottom of the cake and smooth.
9. Sprinkle icing sugar over the worktop and roll out the white icing. Cut out a scalloped fringe, stars and crown shapes using small cutters. Stick the crowns and stars around the sides of the cake using a little water. Cut out stars from the reserved gold icing and stick on the crowns. Put a silver ball on the tip of each crown.