Stirring Up the Christmas Cake!
Coriander
Coriander is helping out in the kitchen again…
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Mormor
…Mormor is in charge of this recipe…
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Cooky
…and Cooky wants to help!
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Molasses, butter…
The Quimper Hittys are helping to make a historic family Fruit Cake recipe for Christmas…
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Ancient
This recipe is the one my Great-grandmother used – here typed out by my grandmother with comments, and sent to my mother when she was a new bride in Argentina…
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Fruit
…it takes a kilogram of Fruit!
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Queen Cookie
My grandmother was right – preparing the fruit and making up the cake is an all day job!
Cooky got bored with the chopping and measuring, and decided to play who is queen of the castle…
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Cooky Stirs
…but she got down when it was time to take her turn at stirring the fruit cake…
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Mormor stirs
…Mormor made sure it was all mixed nicely…
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young Human Stirs
…and Young human helped too!
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Pans
All the stirrings plopped into the pans…
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Baked
…and baked for an interminable amount of time…
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Christmas Cake
Happy Stir Up Sunday! (Do we really have to wait a month to eat it?!
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Quimper Hittys 
lf my counting is correct Youngest Human is the sixth generation making this recipe! It must have taken almost as long as the mixing to set up and take all the pictures. Wonderful photographic story, thank you. I’m sure waiting a month will be worth the wait.
Thanks Onesmallstitch, we are pleased to be making this fruitcake, it has been a while. For the last few years it has been Christmas pudding and mince tarts…this year I just felt like making cake, and also we have mincemeat enough from previous years, and even a Christmas pudding in the fridge from last year! I love baking with they young human – she chose the fruit mixture – and the Hittys are always helpful and cheerful.
What a priceless and enjoyable times… Always I wish to live in your stories… Beautifully touching to me, and I know this is what I mostly miss…. Reminds me my days in the past with my Grandmother… Dear Hitty Lady what you are doing is great. I loved them all. Thank you, Have a nice day, Love, nia
We had so much fun! The fruitcake takes 1 kg of fruit, and the young human had so much fun putting in her favourites – including more ginger than I would have, and glace cherries! I am sure it will be delicious!
I made Christmas cakes this last week too. But I didn’t have helpers – human or wooden so I had to do it all myself
Oh dear, was it an all day job? Stirring is quite a lot of work, we are lucky and grateful to have had the help! The cakes are now resting comfortably in their foil…very tempting to everyone, not just the Hittys!
From your great-grandmother (great-great to Young Human), Mormor to Cooky….human hands and wooden hands…now to another month of waiting….textures, tastes and time….all mixed up in that treasured fruitcake. This sounds like a very treasured treat at this time of year.
I do love the process of baking with young human and Hittys. All time spent with my young human is a treasure – I am so lucky that she lives nearby and likes to do stuff with me, we have such fun together, the Hittys agree!
oh this reminds me of the Gumdrop cakes my sister makes every Christmas, from recipe handed down from our grandmother. so very good with a cup of hot tea on a chilly afternoon.
I think the gumdrop cake sounds delicious and festive too!
That recipe should be framed! A replica would serve the functional purpose, but the original has so much character – and evidence of cakes past. I’m sure it’s treasured, but I worry about accidental catastrophic spills!
We love recipes like this! The fruitcake lives on!