Scottish Christmas Traditions (& Merry Christmas!)

[Tobus]

Black bun is a tradition I'm starting this year, although I'm led to believe it is more of a Hogmanay tradition than Christmas. Just this past weekend I made one from a Scottish cookbook (I can post the recipe if anyone wants it).

It basically consists of making a rudimentary pastry lining for a loaf pan, then filling it with a gooey mixture of raisins/currants/almonds/brown-sugar/ginger/allspice/pepper/cinnamon/flour/cream-of-tartar/egg/brandy/milk. Then capping it off with the remaining pastry, and baking it for 3 hours at low heat. It's very heavy for its size! I'm giving it two weeks to mature, and will present it on New Years.

[Chas]

Black bun is a tradition I'm starting this year, although I'm led to believe it is more of a Hogmanay tradition than Christmas. Just this past weekend I made one from a Scottish cookbook (I can post the recipe if anyone wants it).

It basically consists of making a rudimentary pastry lining for a loaf pan, then filling it with a gooey mixture of raisins/currants/almonds/brown-sugar/ginger/allspice/pepper/cinnamon/flour/cream-of-tartar/egg/brandy/milk. Then capping it off with the remaining pastry, and baking it for 3 hours at low heat. It's very heavy for its size! I'm giving it two weeks to mature, and will present it on New Years.

Yes, please post the recipe. My wife is constantly experimenting with baking and new cakes. This sounds exactly like something she would be interested in.

Regards

Chas

[BoldHighlander]

Black bun is a tradition I'm starting this year, although I'm led to believe it is more of a Hogmanay tradition than Christmas. Just this past weekend I made one from a Scottish cookbook (I can post the recipe if anyone wants it).

Yes, please!

[Pleater]

My mother always had me let in the New Year - my hair goes reddish in the Summer but darkens considerably in the Autumn.

The year that her father died a blond boy had come to the door and was let in - after declaring that he was dark haired. It was still spoken of decades later.

My mother was superstitious - went ballistic when I took hawthorn blossom into the house.

The conventions in our family was that the Christmas cake was rectangular and the Twelfth cake circular - or rather annular as it was made in a particular tin with a hole in the middle, and was mostly fruit and nuts - three different colours of glace cherries were required, red green and yellow, almonds, walnuts and cobnuts, chopped candied peel, preserved ginger, apricots, figs, dates, huge green sultanas and a small amount of flour and butter, plus several eggs to hold it all together. Two cakes were baked and then placed one on top of the other to form the completed cake, a toroid shape.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: