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A heavily iced Christmas cake

A neatly decorated Christmas cake

Christmas cake is a type of fruitcake served at Christmas time in many countries.

British Commonwealth variations[link]

A Christmas cake may be light or dark, crumbly-moist to sticky-wet, spongy to heavy, leavened or unleavened, shaped round, square or oblong as whole cakes, fairy cakes, or petit fours, with marzipan, icing, glazing, dusting with icing sugar, or plain. If a Christmas cake is covered in icing, it is quite common for it to be decorated - models of houses, of fir trees or of Santa Claus may be in the array of decorations.

A particular favourite of many is the traditional Scottish Christmas cake, the Whisky Dundee. As the name implies, the cake originated in Dundee and is made with Scotch whisky. It is a light and crumbly cake, and light on fruit and candied peel—only currants, raisins, sultanas and cherries. This Christmas cake is particularly good for people who don't like very rich and moist cakes. As with all fruitcakes, the almonds (or other nuts) can be omitted by people who don't like them or those with severe nut allergies.

At the other end of the Christmas cake continuum, the apple crème Christmas cake is a rich mix of finely sliced apples, raisins and other fruit, with eggs, cream cheese, and heavy whipping cream.

In the middle of the spectrum is the mincemeat Christmas cake, which is simply any traditional or vegetarian mincemeat, mixed with flour, eggs, etc., to transform it into a cake batter; or it can also be steamed as a Christmas pudding.

Coins were also occasionally added to Christmas cakes as well as Christmas puddings as good luck touch pieces. The usual choices were silver 3d piece, or sixpences, sometimes wrapped in greaseproof paper packages.

In Northern England, Christmas cake, as with other types of fruit cake, is often eaten with cheese, such as Wensleydale.^{[citation needed]}

A cake that may also be served at Christmas time in the United Kingdom, in addition to the traditional Christmas cake, is the cake known as a "chocolate log". This is a swiss roll that is coated in chocolate, resembling a log.

Christmas cake in other countries[link]

In the United States, some people give fruitcakes as gifts at Christmastime, but they are not called Christmas cakes.^[1] In the neighboring country of Canada, however, such an item is properly labelled a Christmas cake, at least among the English-speaking majority.

In Japan, Christmas cakes are traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve. They are simply a sponge cake, frosted with whipped cream, often decorated with strawberries, and usually topped with Christmas chocolates or other seasonal fruit. In the past, single women over the age of 25 were sometimes referred to in Japan as a "Christmas cake"^[2] (Japanese: クリスマスケーキ Kurisumasu kēki) based on the belief that just as a Christmas cake is unwanted after December 25th, single women become unwanted after their 25th birthday.

In the Philippines, Christmas cakes are bright rich yellow pound cakes with macerated nuts or fruitcakes of the British fashion. Both are soaked in copious amounts of brandy or rum mixed with a simple syrup of palm sugar and water. Traditionally, civet musk is added, but rosewater or orange flower water is more common now, as civet musk has become very expensive. These liquor-laden cakes can usually stay fresh for many months provided they are handled properly.

In Germany, Stollen, a traditional German fruitcake, is popular. During the Christmas season, it's also called Weihnachtsstollen or Christstollen.

In Cyprus, it is served on Christmas Day. It is the first treat the locals serve to their guests. Cypriot Christmas cake is much like the UK equivalent.

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christmas cakes

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Christmas cake

• Christmas pudding

References[link]

v t e Cakes Butter cakes Devil's food cake Gooey butter cake Pound cake Cheesecakes Ostkaka Chocolate cakes Black Forest cake Flourless chocolate cake Fudge cake Garash cake German chocolate cake Joffre cake Kladdkaka Molten chocolate cake Sachertorte Fruitcakes Black bun Bolo rei Dundee Cake Panforte Layer cakes Angel cake Buckwheat gateau Dobos torte Esterhazy torte Hot milk cake Kiev cake Mille-feuille Princess Cake Prinzregententorte Rainbow cake Spekkoek Kuih Lapis Spit cakes Baumkuchen Kürtőskalács (Chimney cake) Šakotis Spettekaka Trdelník Sponge cakes Angel food cake Battenberg cake Boston cream pie Castella Chiffon cake Frankfurter Kranz French Fancy Frog cake Génoise cake Lamington Madeira cake Madeleine Mantecadas Marble cake Opera cake Pandan cake Paper wrapped cake Red velvet cake Rum cake Shortcake Spice cake Swiss roll Tres leches cake Upside-down cake Yeast cakes Babka Banana bread Banbury cake Chorley cake Date and walnut loaf Eccles cake Flies graveyard Rum baba Streuselkuchen Sweetheart cake Welsh cake Special occasions Birthday cake Buccellato Bûche de Noël (Christmas) Christmas cake Doberge cake Groom's cake King cake (Mardi Gras) Lekach (Rosh Hashanah) Marry girl cake Mooncake (Mid-Autumn Festival) Pan de Pascua (Christmas) Simnel cake (Easter) Soul cake (All Saints Day) Stack cake (Wedding) Stollen Wedding cake Others Apple cake Bizcocho Bulla cake Bundt cake Carrot cake Coconut cake Coffee cake Croquenbouche Cupcake Dacquoise Erotic cake Game cake Gingerbread Gugelhupf Heavy cake Ice cream cake Jaffa Cakes Lolly cake Muffin Pain d'épices Parkin Pavlova Petit four Punschkrapfen Ruske kape Šampita Krempita Teacake Tompouce

Delia Smith CBE (born 18 June 1941) is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a no-nonsense style. She is the UK's best-selling cookery author, with more than 21 million copies sold.

Smith is also famous for her role as joint majority shareholder at Norwich City F.C. Her partner in the shareholding is her husband, Michael Wynn-Jones. Her role at the club has attracted varying media attention, from positive when she "saved" the club from bankruptcy, to negative, when making a controversial on-pitch announcement in 2005.

Already an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), Smith was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours, "in recognition of ... [her] contribution to television cookery and recipe writing".

Chef, author and TV personality[link]

Born to a Welsh mother in Woking, Surrey, Smith attended Bexleyheath School, leaving at the age of 16 without a single O-level. Her first job was as a hairdresser, and she also worked as a shop assistant and in a travel agency before starting her career in cookery. When Delia was 16, her boyfriend often complimented her, saying how good her food was. This was the nudge forward that made Delia take that step into cookery. At 21, she started work in a tiny restaurant in Paddington called The Singing Chef. She started as a washer-upper, then moved on to waitressing, and then was allowed to help with the cooking. She started reading English cookery books in the Reading Room at the British Museum, trying out the recipes on a Harley Street family with whom she was living at the time.

"Dee" (as she was known at the time) worked for Carlton Studios, in Fredrick Close near Marble Arch in London, as a 'Pinner'/Home Economist where she worked with photographers such as Barry Buller and Peter Knab, preparing mostly food for studio photography.

In 1969 Smith was taken on as the cookery writer for the Daily Mirror's new magazine. Their Deputy Editor was Michael Wynn-Jones, whom she later married. Her first piece featured kipper pâté, beef in beer, and cheesecake. In 1972 she started a column in the Evening Standard which she was to write for 12 years. Later she wrote a column for the Radio Times until 1986.

Smith became famous by hosting a cookery television show Family Fare which ran between 1973-1975. Her first television appearances came in the early 1970s, as resident cook on BBC East's regional magazine programme Look East, shown on BBC One across East Anglia.

Smith approached BBC Further Education with an idea for their first televised cookery course. Her aim was to teach people how to cook: to take them back to basics and cover all the classic techniques. Accompanying books were needed to explain not only how, but why, things happen. This led to her three Cookery Course books.

Smith became a recognisable figure amongst young people in the 1970s and early 1980s when she was an occasional guest on the BBC Saturday morning children's programme Multicoloured Swap Shop and did basic cooking demonstrations; she and host Noel Edmonds had a flirtatious way of interacting with each other back then. She purportedly phoned in during the reunion programme It Started with Swap Shop, though that particular "appearance" is debatable.

Her television series, Delia's How to Cook (1998), reportedly led to a 10% rise in egg sales in Britain, and her use of ingredients (such as frozen mash, tinned minced beef and onions as used in her 2008 TV series), or utensils (such as an omelette pan), could cause sell-outs overnight. This phenomenon – the "Delia Effect" – was most recently seen in 2008 after her new book How to Cheat at Cooking was published. Her fame has meant that her first name has become sufficient to identify her to the public, and the "Delia Effect" has become a commonly used phrase to describe a run on a previously poor-selling product as a result of a high-profile recommendation.^[1]

She created a stir in 1998 when she taught viewers how to boil an egg.^[2]

In 2003 Smith announced her retirement from television. However, she returned for an eponymously-titled six-part series airing on the BBC in Spring 2008. The accompanying book, an update of her original best-selling 1971 book How to Cheat at Cooking, was published by Ebury Press in February 2008, immediately becoming a number one best-seller. Items to have benefitted from the "Delia Effect" include the Kenwood mini-chopper, Martelli pasta and Aunt Bessie's mashed potato.

In 2005, Smith announced that she was supporting the Labour Party in the forthcoming election.^[3]

In 2009, Smith announced that in order to help Norwich City's finances, she has "been working extremely hard on another book and TV series."^[4] It is to be a retrospective of her 40 year career, "looking at how things have changed".^[5]

In 2010, Delia's latest television series, Delia through the Decades, was first broadcast on 11 January on BBC2 at 8.30pm. The show lasts for five weeks, with each episode exploring a new decade of her cooking.^[6] Her biggest selling book Delia Smith's The Winter Collection (1995) sold 2 million copies in hardback.^[7]

In March 2010, Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal were signed up to appear in a series of 40 commercials on British television for the supermarket chain Waitrose.^[8]

Religion[link]

Smith is also known for her spiritual books. She has had a varied church background. Having been baptised in the Church of England, she attended a Methodist Sunday School, a Congregationalist Brownie group and later a Church of England youth group. At the age of 22 she converted to the Roman Catholic Church. Her first two short religious books, A Feast for Lent (1983) and A Feast for Advent (1983), are readings and reflections for these seasons. In 1988 Delia took on the much larger challenge of writing a full-length book on prayer - A Journey into God.

Football[link]

Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones at the 25th anniversary of the Capital Canaries, 2000

Smith has developed other business interests outside of her culinary ventures, notably a majority shareholding in the recently promoted Barclays Premier League team Norwich City Football Club, with her Welsh-born husband, Michael Wynn-Jones with whom she lives near Stowmarket in Suffolk. Both Smith and Wynn-Jones were season ticket holders at Norwich and were invited to invest in the club, which had fallen on hard times.

On 28 February 2005, Smith attracted attention during the half-time break of a home match against Manchester City. At the time Norwich were fighting an ultimately unsuccessful battle against relegation from the Premier League, and in order to rally the crowd, Smith grabbed the microphone from the club announcer on the pitch and said: "A message for the best football supporters in the world: we need a 12th man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let's be 'avin' you! Come on!"^[9] Norwich lost the match 3–2.^[10] Smith denied suggestions in the media that she had been drunk while delivering the speech.^[11]

In 2008, Smith was reported to have rejected an offer from Norfolk-born billionaire Peter Cullum, who wished to invest £20 million in the club, but wished Smith and the other shareholders to relinquish their holdings.^{[citation needed]} At a Norwich City AGM in November of that year, however, Smith said that:

she and her husband Michael Wynn Jones would 'be very happy to stand aside' as majority shareholders if someone came along with an offer to buy them out. Delia also stated that she was never made an offer for her majority shareholding by Peter Cullum.^[12]

Cullum confirmed Smith's version of events: "Peter Cullum subsequently confirmed that he did not offer to buy the shares of the majority shareholders. He explained the £20m he offered would have been in return for new shares and that money would have been used to buy players, but he had never offered to buy out the majority shareholders."^[12]

In August 2011, Smith announced that, anticipating her 70th birthday, she was stepping down from her catering role at Carrow Road: "It is now time for a fresh approach and a younger team who, I am confident, will take the business even further."^[13]

Business[link]

From 1993 to 1998 Smith worked as a behind-the-scenes consultant for Sainsbury's. In May 1993 she and her husband launched New Crane Publishing, which produces the Sainsbury's Magazine and produced Smith's most recent books for BBC Worldwide. Smith was Consultant Director and contributed her own recipes. Although Delia and Michael sold New Crane Publishing in 2005, Smith continues to be a Consultant for Seven Publishing who now publish the magazine.

In March 2001 Smith launched her website, Delia Online.^[14] She uses the site to communicate directly with her fans, and offers a growing archive of her recipes. There is also a forum where contributors share recipes, offer advice about cookery skills and where to buy products. The website also contains information about Smith's latest ventures.

Awards[link]

In the 2009 Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), "in recognition of ... [her] contribution to television cookery and recipe writing".^[5][15]

In 1996, Smith was awarded an honorary degree by Nottingham University, a Fellowship from St Mary’s University College (a college of the University of Surrey) and a Fellowship from the Royal Television Society. In 1999 she received an Honorary degree from the University of East Anglia and in 2000, a Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University.

Publications[link]

Cookery books[link]

• How to Cheat at Cooking (1971)
• Recipes from Country Inns and Restaurants (1973)
• The Evening Standard Cookbook (1974)
• Country Recipes from Look East (1975)
• More Country Recipes: A Second Collection from Look East (1976)
• Frugal Food (1976) (Re-issued in October 2008)
• Cakes, Bakes & Steaks (1977)
• Delia Smith's Book of Cakes (1977)
• Delia Smith's Cookery Course (3 volumes: 1978, 1979 & 1980)
• One is Fun (1986)
• Complete Illustrated Cookery Course (1989) (ISBN 0-563-21454-6)
• Delia Smith's Christmas (1990)
• Delia Smith's Summer Collection (1993)
• Delia Smith's Winter Collection (1995) (winner of the 1996 British Book of the Year award).
• Delia's How to Cook—Book 1 (1998) (based on the television series)
• Delia's How to Cook—Book 2 (1999)
• Delia's How to Cook—Book 3 (2001)
• The Delia Collection (2003) (several themed volumes)
• Delia's Kitchen Garden: A Beginners' Guide to Growing and Cooking Fruit and Vegetables (2004)
• The Delia Collection - Puddings (2006)
• Delia's Kitchen Garden (February 2007) (BBC Books - ISBN 978-0-563-49373-0)
• How to Cheat at Cooking (February 2008) (Ebury Press - ISBN 978-0-09-192229-0)
• Delia's Happy Christmas (October 2009)

Religious works[link]

• A Feast for Advent (1983)
• A Feast for Lent (1983)
• A Journey into Prayer (1986)
• A Journey into God (1988)

Television series guide[link]

• Family Fare
• Series 1: 8 editions from 12 September 1973 - 7 November 1973
• Series 2: 12 editions from 11 July 1974 - 2 October 1974
• Series 3: 13editions from 18 April 1975 - 11 July 1975

• Delia Smith's Cookery Course 1: 10 editions from 3 November 1978 - 26 January 1979
• Delia Smith's Cookery Course 2: 10 editions from 11 January 1980 - 14 March 1980
• Delia Smith's Cookery Course 3: 10 editions from 6 April 1981 - 18 June 1981

• Delia Smith's One is Fun: 6 editions from 28 June 1985 - 9 August 1985

• Delia Smith's Christmas: 6 editions from 15 November 1990 - 20 December 1990

• Delia Smith's Summer Collection: 10 editions from 4 May 1993 - 6 July 1993

• Delia Smith's Winter Collection: 12 editions from 11 October 1995 - 7 February 1996

• Delia's Red Nose Collection: 5 editions from 9 February 1997 - 9 March 1997

• Delia's How to Cook 1: 10 editions from 13 October 1998 - 15 December 1998
• Delia's How to Cook 2: 10 editions from 10 January 2000 - 13 March 2000
• Delia's How to Cook 3: 8 editions from 8 January 2002 - 26 February 2002

• Delia's Chocolate C'Hunks: 5 editions from 9 February 2001 - 9 March 2001

• Delia: 6 editions from 10 March 2008 - 14 April 2008
• Delia through the Decades: 5 editions from 11 January 2010 - 8 February 2010^[6]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Delia Smith

• Delia Online
• BBC biography