Christmas cake is an English tradition that began as plum porridge. People ate the porridge on Christmas Eve, using it
to line their stomachs after a day of fasting. Soon dried fruit, spices and honey were added to the porridge mixture,
and eventually it turned into Christmas pudding.
In the 16th century, oatmeal was removed from the original recipe, and butter, wheat flour and eggs were added. These
ingredients helped hold the mixture together and in what resulted in a boiled plum cake. Richer families that had ovens
began making fruit cakes with marzipan, an almond sugar paste, for Easter. For Christmas, they made a similar cake using
seasonal dried fruit and spices. The spices represented the exotic eastern spices brought by the Wise Men. This cake
became known as "Christmas cake."
Learn more about its history on English Tea Store
Coded by Natalie Lee