Christmas Baking - Fruit Mince

I've been flicking through Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management to see how Christmas baking was done in 1861.   It seems like plum pudding and fruit mince pies containing actual beef were the highlights.  Christmas baking didn't seem like that big a deal, which is a little disappointing as I thought the Victorians would have invented the Christmas baking frenzy, along with all the other Christmas traditions they introduced.

Mrs Beeton's book is a fascinating read.  It was published as a guide for the modern Victorian housewife who had servants to manage and morning calls to receive.  The cookery section made the book famous as the recipes included precise measurements and actual cooking times, one of the very first to do so.  Mrs Beeton introduces the Cookery section with the following:

"As in the Fine Arts, the progress of mankind from barbarism to civilisation is marked by a gradual succession of triumphs over the rude materialities of nature, so in the art of cookery is the progress gradual from the earliest and simplest modes, to those of the most complicated and refined."

I am about to disappoint Mrs Beeton by using a jar of ready-made fruit mince, an act which is neither complicated nor refined, just simply convenient.  If I was in 1861, making fruit mince would have involved removing currants from their stalks, carefully picking over said currants to remove all stones and grit, stoning the raisins, and mincing beef and suet, all at the beginning of December for use in a fortnight's time.  Life is too short, even with the packaged dried fruit available today and the non-involvement of any meat products. There is good quality fruit mince available, and I say embrace the ready-made.  Mrs Beeton seemed like a pragmatic sort of a woman for her era and class, so I am hoping the 2011 version of her would understand the competing priorities of the modern woman and support my decision, however unrefined.

Fruit mince pies - blind bake sweet pastry in mini-muffin tins, add the fruit mince and bake for 5 minutes at 150 degrees celsius.  For a traditional look, decorate with a star and dust with icing sugar.

 For a more contemporary look, top with some pashmak (Persian fairy floss).

Fruit mince shortbread slice - Make a shortbread mixture in a food processor (a traditional recipe works best as you need the structural integrity of rice flour) to which you add two egg yolks.  Press two-thirds of the mixture into a 23x23cm tin and spread over a 410g jar of fruit mince.  Sprinkle the remaining shortbread mixture over the top.  Froth up the egg whites and pour over the top.  Sprinkle with sugar and bake, in the words of Mrs Beeton, in a "brisk" oven (180 degrees celsius) for 20 minutes.

Christmas Gift Wrapping ideas - Birds

One last gift wrapping hurrah before Christmas, using birds as a theme.  I don't have any Christmas-related bird stories, but I can tell you about Sylvester.  When I was about 5 years old, a baby Senegal dove fell out of its nest and into our backyard.  We rescued it, and I named him Sylvester after Sylvester the Cat from the cartoon Sylvester and Tweetie Pie.  It made perfect sense to me at the time.  We kept Sylvester in a lined box in the laundry and fed him barley and water.  Every day, my Mum would take Sylvester outside for flying lessons, which involved putting him on her arm and waving it up and down.  One day, he flew off, and we never saw him again, much to my devastation.  To this day, my family still refers to Senegal doves as "Sylvesters", to the extent that I had to phone my Dad this morning to ask him "What kind of birds are Sylvesters?".   

I like to use decorations when wrapping gifts, and I found these metallic bird decorations at a craft fair earlier in the year.  For this gift, I've used red tissue paper and hemp twine for a minimalist, slightly Japanese look. 

For this gift bag, I've suspended the bird mid flight using red and white twine.

Another way to feature birds in your gift wrapping is by using decorative ribbon. This ribbon is cotton twill, which always looks good against brown paper.  The ribbon on the bag is glued on using all purpose craft glue.

Red and light blue is such a classic colour combination, and this red and cream ribbon really pops against the glossy blue paper.

Not strictly gift wrapping, but I made these cards using decorative paper to complete the theme.  For this card, I used a Christmas decoration as a template.

The card on the right featured in my 13 November 2011 post on Christmas cards and gift tags.

If your relationship with birds is more Tippi Hedren than Sylvester, you may find using birds as your Christmas wrapping theme quite cathartic.