Christmas pud

I used to always make my Christmas pudding, Christmas cake and mincemeat… but that was when we had my dad and sister, my mother-in-law, my aunty and uncle, two friends and their sons… Times change and when it became just the four of us the children didn’t really like the cake, and weren’t that fussed with the pies or pud, and the pair off us couldn’t get through it all so this tradition fell by the wayside.

There was the time one November, when we were staying at my dad’s house and I decided to get going with the Christmas preparations and had bowls with different combinations of ingredients soaking in a variety of different spirits for mincemeat, cake and pud, before cooking/ bottling/steaming. I ran out of time and the three bowls came home in the car with us (it smelt wonderful, spicy, rummy, citrussy, yummy!) When I got home I couldn’t remember which bowl was which… I think I got it sort of right in the end, I think I may have swapped the pies and pud ingredients but it all tasted jolly fine.

I made some mincemeat last week… and belatedly I think I will make a pudding; I remembered seeing a Delia Smith recipe using mincemeat and other ingredients to make a pud… and I have just found the recipe! Now I need a couple of lemons, some stout, and I’m ready to rock!