Christmas Desserts - Serve Victorian Christmas Desserts this Year

 

These elaborate Christmas favorites were featured in a Victorian magazine for readers to plan for holiday celebrations with family and friends. Remember, these dessert recipes are over 100 years old and contain old-fashioned ingredients and methods. Moreover, period recipes often differ in the amount of sugar used compared to modern day tastes. If you prefer, you can convert one of your favorite recipes for the core ingredients, but decorate your dessert to look like these favorite Victorian Christmas desserts.

 

 

Victorian Christmas Cake

This Christmas cake features two tall layers and is ornately decorated with holly sprigs and berries to beckon holiday cheer. The Victorian Christmas cake is roughly iced in white icing and the base is circled with holly.

Original recipe: Two cups raised bread dough, 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, nutmeg, salt. ½ cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, 1 glass sherry, 1 cup raisins, 3 eggs, 6 cups flour. Let rise. Pour in one large round tin and one small round tin. When done arrange as illustrated. Roughly ice and circle with holly.

 

 

 

Plum Pudding - Traditional Christmas Dessert

 

Plum pudding, a Christmas pudding, has been served on Christmas day for centuries. This traditional Christmas pudding is served in a blaze with a sprig of holly stuck on top. For the plum pudding sauce, a little brandy is poured over the dessert and lighted at the last moment to produce the desired effect.

Original Recipe: Mix 4 cups stale bread-crumbs, 1 cup chopped suet, 1 cup molasses, 2 eggs, 2 cups raisins, 2 cups milk, 1 level teaspoon soda, 1 teaspoon powdered cloves, 2 cinnamon, half each mace, allspice and salt, 1 cup chopped almonds, half cup currants. Boil unceasingly in buttered mould for three and half hours. When sending to table garnish with holly; pour brandy over and ignite. Serve with hard-sauce.

 

Flaming Holiday Desserts Are Fun!
You can add drama to your holiday dessert presentation by serving flaming dishes - especially plum pudding, but remember these tips:

• Use a quality liqueur because after the alcohol burns off, the flavor remains.
• Warm the liqueur before igniting it by holding a match under a tablespoon.
• Lower the lights before igniting desserts for added excitement.
• To serve desserts flambé but without alcohol, simply soak a sugar cube in lemon extract then pour the liquid over the dessert and ignite it as though it were brandy. This trick is a big hit with the kids – without the alcohol.

 

 

 

Stars of Bethlehem

This Victorian Christmas dessert makes a wonderful holiday display with its festive star-shaped cakes arranged on a cake dish decorated with holly. We baked the small Christmas cakes in the Wilton 6-Cavity Mini Star cake pan for the desired shapes. A pink icing glaze topped with a silver glitter star completes the holiday display.

Original Recipe: One-half pound granulated sugar, ¼ pound butter, 1 teaspoon salt, 1-2/3 cup flour, 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon nutmeg extract. Stiffly beaten whites of 6 eggs added last. Bake in star tins. Ice with pink and ornament with silver-coated confectionery.