Citations:Christmas cake - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (2024)

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Citations:Christmas cake - Wiktionary, the free dictionary? ›

English citations of Christmas cake

Christmas cakes are also commonly made with pudding while a fruit cake uses butter, however there are Christmas cake recipes that do contain butter. The traditional Scottish Christmas cake, also known as the Whisky Dundee, is very popular.

25 rolls around — a fact that gave birth to an unfortunate bit of old Japanese slang: "Christmas cake" was used to refer to an unmarried woman who was over 25 and thus, considered past her prime.

A Christmas cake is a heavy cake containing much driedfruit and usually having a covering of icing. It is made to be eaten at Christmas. It can also be called a fruitcake.

In Japan, women had traditionally been expected to marry at a young age, and those who were unmarried after the age of 25 were metaphorically referred to as "(unsold) Christmas cakes" (クリスマスケーキ) in reference to items which are still unsold after the 25th.

The traditional Christmas cake derives from two Christian feast days: Twelfth Night and Easter. In the early days, the Christmas cake was actually a plum porridge which was created with the sole intention of lining the stomach. The classic Christmas plum cake has its origins in mediaeval England.

The Roman fruitcake was a mash of barley, honey, wine and dried fruit, often pomegranate seeds. What you might recognize as a modern-style fruitcake – a moist, leavened dessert studded with fruits and nuts – was probably first baked in the early Middle Ages in Europe.

Christmas cake actually started life as plum porridge, designed to line people's stomachs after a day of religious fasting. Soon, other fruits and a dash of honey joined the plums and became the good old Christmas pudding.

The Christmas Cake originally was called the Twelfth Cake and would have more traditionally been served at parties on the Twelfth Night ending the 12 days of Christmas on the 5th of January. And these cakes started as enriched fruit cakes, something more akin to an Italian Panettone.

Some believe that raisins were referred to as 'plums' in medieval England; since the recipe called for an abundance of them, the dish came to be known as 'plum pudding'. On the other hand, some think that the original mixture contained prunes (dried plums), which were eventually replaced by more exotic dried fruits.

What is the traditional Christmas cake called in English? ›

Did you know that the of eating fruitcake around the holidays stemmed from Great Britain? The traditional Christmas dessert isn't at all similar to the candied peel and citron cakes you might think of when “fruitcake” is mentioned. Called Christmas cake or plum cake in Great Britain, the dessert dates to Roman times!

An unmarried women over 25 is referred to by the Japanese as "leftover Christmas cake" (Double insult -- Christmas isn't even celebrated by the majority of Japanese. Congratulations, you're leftovers from another country's leftovers). But an unmarried man? He's simply an "old schoolboy" (Yiddish).

Utterly distinct from the fruity, boozey density of British Christmas cake, Japanese Christmas cake, or 'kurisumasu keki,' is a light sponge cake, covered in a layer of whipped cream and decorated with ripe strawberries.

Though a cake is a wonderful thing: the care and patience required; the sweet indulgence; the ceremony; the extravagant simplicity. It is a metaphor for love.

Fruitcake is a rich dense cake packed with dry fruits and nuts flavoured with spices usually made during Christmas. In India, this is found everywhere during the Christmas season, although it is also available commonly throughout the year.

Why Do We Serve Fruit Cake for Christmas? In the 1700s and 1800s, the ingredients required to make fruit cake were prohibitively expensive. Therefore, fruit cake was considered an indulgence served only during special occasions like weddings and holidays.

You're forgiven if you think Christmas Pudding is the round English version of an American fruitcake. While it has similarities, they are altogether different. Both improve with age and include dried fruits, chopped nuts, hearty spices, and steep in a cold dark spot for weeks, but that is where the similarities end.

A Fruit Cake is a normal vanilla cake with fruits in it. Whereas a Plum Cake is made with dry fruits soaked in alcohol/orange juice for more than a day. A Fruit Cake's colour is white to yellowish inside, whereas a Plum Cake's colour is brown to dark brown inside.