Carrying on the tradition...

This morning, I was out of the house by 8:40 - on my way to see Aunt Helen & Uncle Joe...I had a date with them to make English Plum Pudding. It's the traditional Christmas dessert that was always the flaming finale (and I do mean flaming!) to our holiday meal on Christmas. In our family the plum pudding was made a few weeks before Christmas so it could "age" just long enough...and then, when it was time for dessert on Christmas Day, my dad would pour brandy or whiskey on top of it and light it! Yes, the cake would burst into flames, my brother & I would scream, and mom would be standing by with a wet towel in case my dad caught his moustache on fire. The flames would quickly die down, and then the hard sauce was poured on top and the cake would be cut...I didn't like it very much when I was a kid. It is basically a fruit and nut spice cake that is steamed, not baked. I was more into the pumpkin pie...

Recently, I talked to my Uncle Joe about the plum pudding and he promised to call me when they were going to make theirs...and I got the call last week.

The trick is to prepare every ingredient (lots of chopping is involved...) before any mixing begins. When I walked into their house this morning, Aunt Helen was already preparing the bread crumbs...and measuring the spices.

This is the plum pudding pan (a lid gets clamped onto the top) that my grandmother bought for my Aunt Helen. (By the way - there are no plums involved...and it's not a pudding at all...)
There are 18 ingredients to prepare...

Mixing....

After steaming in a huge pot of water...for 2 1/2 hours...you get the finished product:

The main ingredients are: suet (a hard animal fat that is chopped up into small pieces), brown sugar, dry bread crumbs, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, eggs, orange juice, raisins, currants, dates, apples, candied fruit and walnuts.