The joy of Christmas baking - and its somewhat surprising origins

Sitting watching the television one evening recently, Lucy Worsley’s Christmas Carol Odyssey came on. 

I hadn’t intended watching it but was completely sucked in before I had got round to changing the channel.

It turns out that there are some very interesting and surprising origins to well known Christmas carols. Some going back to Pagan rituals - as is the case with many of our festive traditions - others adapted from a time when only passages from the Bible could be sung in Church.

They also reflect coded messages and periods of conflict within the church. The 12 Days of Christmas has its origins in a children’s memory game, with each child adding a line, and the whole lot having to be repeated. The dramatically sung ‘five gold rings’ lines was apparently first sung in that way by an opera singer who wanted to show off his skill, and it became hugely popular.

Many of the lyrics had changed completely over the years, yet were still comfortingly recognisable.

I was eating a mince pie still warm from the oven while watching the show, and it got me thinking about the origins of our favourite festive bakes. I started doing some research and was not disappointed.

First up was the traditional Christmas cake. If I had given this any thought before, I would have assumed it went back to a way of using fruit that had been preserved by drying.

But it has a very different origin. 

According to the Great British Bake Off website: “Christmas cake actually started life as plum porridge, designed to line people’s stomachs after a day of religious fasting. 

“Soon, other fruits and a dash of honey joined the plums and became the good old Christmas pudding. 

“Around the 16th century, people began to use richer ingredients so the oats were removed and flour and eggs were added. The pudding started to resemble the kind of fruitcake we’d recognise today. 

“Spices that had started to be brought over from the east were incorporated into the cake to symbolise the three wise men. Richer families could also afford to wrap their cakes in marzipan, making them look much like the Christmas cake we eat today.”

It hasn’t changed a lot since then, apart from the addition of royal icing and the various decorations that adorn our Christmas cakes nowadays.

What we now consider the traditional Christmas cake is usually made well in advance, and stored in an airtight container. It is then regularly ‘fed’ brandy or whiskey until closer to Christmas when it is iced first with a layer of marzipan and then with the final festive coating of royal icing.

Mince pies have also undergone an interesting evolution. 

It is thought that they were created in England during Tudor times to represent Christmas and Christianity. 

The pie itself was triangular to represent the manger, with a pastry ‘baby Jesus’ on the lid.

They were made from 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and the 12 apostles, and all the ingredients were in some way symbols of the story of Christmas. 

As the name suggests, they originally contained minced meat, usually lamb or mutton, representing the shepherds and their flock. Dried fruit included raisins, figs and prunes. Spices such as cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg symbolised the wise men. 

Over time, the mince pie evolved to a round shape, to eventually be made using the rich buttery pastry that we know and love today. As well as the mix of dried fruit, today’s mince pies contain elements such as citrus, nuts, brandy or port and suet or butter. 

Spices feature a lot in our Christmas cooking, having been part of our cuisine for centuries due to Ireland’s location on the old shipping trade routes. Gingerbread and ginger biscuits are deliciously warming on a cold winter’s day, as are many of our store cupboard spices. 

European cuisine features a lot of spiced Christmas biscuits and chocolate-based treats such as the Yule log. And with our wider exposure to multicultural traditions, we can enjoy much of what other countries have to offer at this time of year. 

There are many fantastic - and not so fantastic - ready  made products in bakeries, Christmas markets and on supermarket shelves. 

But I think there is something really special about Christmas baking. I made mincemeat on Sunday - it’s quite easy and absolutely worth the little bit of effort (I use Mary Berry’s recipe available online, modified slightly to include orange and port instead of lemon and brandy). 

Then it was a matter of making a quick shortcrust pastry, slightly richer than usual. I make the pies quite small and shallow with a small, served with a small dollop of cream,  so there is just the perfect amount of everything in each  bite. 

Mary Berry has again been my guide for gingerbread houses when my kids were smaller. She really has a way of creating recipes that are absolutely delicious but very easy to follow.

Lucy Worsley made the point that we all seem to know Christmas carols without ever really knowing why. They are part of our wider cultural awareness.

In the same way, mince pies are part of Christmas, and gingerbread takes on a whole new significance at this time of year. And like the carols, our Christmas baking traditions are evolving. Each generation keeps what it likes from the old and adds its own changes to set new traditions in motion. 

Christmas baking is one of my favourite things about this time of year, and is such a lovely way to connect and share with family and friends. 

So whether you sit down with a mince pie or a chocolate cupcake, a slice of Christmas cake or panettone, enjoy writing the current chapter in your own family’s festive traditions.