Anyone else making 🎄 puddings soon?

I have used Nigella’s recipe for years now. Even people who say they don’t like Christmas pudding devour it. It’s incredibly easy, soak the fruit in sherry for as long as you want and then stir all the ingredients together. I put it in the slow cooker on medium until I remember to switch it off then put it in the slow cooker again about 6-8 hours before lunch on the day. It’s all very casual.

I microwave mine a week or two before the big day!

Have a lovely time with the grandchildren. Such a special time. Xx

I thought of doing mine in the slow cooker last year, Ziplok, but alas my pudding basins are too big.

My recipe can be left overnight once mixed up, so (given that we’re going to be out a lot with Gdcs) I expect we’ll mix up one night, and I’ll put them on to steam the following night.

I had a piece of a last year’s M & S reduced deluxe Christmas pudding yesterday! Not been in the freezer, just still in packaging in the cupboard. It had a high alcohol content! It’s use by date was April. I’ll stick with theirs, when reduced. Will be making the cake though.

I no longer make them as I live alone, but when all the kids were at home the pudds and the cake were always made during the school Summer holidays.

Retired teacher so always made Christmas cake and Christmas pudding at half term and will now continue, should have more time but having too much fun with grandchildren!

Not since discovering you can buy all sorts to suit tastes and food preferences and heat them in seconds in a microwave.

Gave up making Christmas puddings and cake years ago. No one ate the cake and we bought a marvellous Christmas pudding one year at an artisan food fair, which I can't better, so we buy one every year now.
I also prep all my Christmas Day food in advance using Delia's Christmas Cookbook. Carrot and swede mash in foil containers in the freezer, as well as red cabbage and parmesan parsnips. Pigs in blankets likewise and roast potatoes par boiled and oiled on a tray in the fridge the day before.
The aforementioned Christmas pudding fits in the slow cooker and warms up nicely during the morning out in the utility room. The the only thing I cook on the day is the turkey and the sprouts.
I gave up trying new ideas for the dinner years ago and stick to the same formula every year. When I worked full time I took annual leave for a week toward the end of November/begining December as my Christmas 'prep' week. My colleagues thought it was hilarious, but it meant I could enjoy the day without slaving over the cooker, but also knowing it was mostly home cooked!

Americans don’t make puddings but we make the same thing called Fruitcake. (Spicy batter with asstd dried fruits, nuts and peels; some are curated weeks in advance by sprinkling bourbon, rum or brandy.)

You either love it (me!) or absolutely hate the stuff. It’s become a seasonal pastime here where some even make fun or parody out of these cakes. Some hilarious.

I like to make my spicy cake ahead of time. It sets up my holiday🎄season. I end up finishing the rest of it over time. It gets better!

For those that make, don’t eat, and throw away $😳$ - Please share with others that don’t ever get to have any!
USA Gundy

I haven't made my puddings yet, but I will. Probably about five of them. I'll make the first Christmas cake in a couple of weeks. We are usually on number three by the time it actually gets to Christmas.

What I did make a couple of weeks ago was mincemeat. I made a half measure of Delia's recipe. I did substitute glacé cherries for almond slivers and instead of putting it in a low oven I bunged it in the slow cooker.

I tried it last night and it is phenomenal. I've made a mincemeat cake and when I've been shopping again I'll make more mincemeat, a full six jars this time.

I will be making mine on stir up Sunday, and I do it in the slow cooker too. It’s Delia’s recipe and I steam it on low for about 8 hours, then again on the big day for a couple of hours. It’s so much easier than doing them on the stove top, ensuring the water is topped up and making the kitchen steamy. The slow cooker avoids all that.
I used to make my cake during October half term, but in recent years I’ve made a boozy Dundee cake which doesn’t need as long maturing, so make it the end of November or beginning of December.

Me too.

I used to collect grandchildren from school when they were young so making Christmas pudding and cakes was a great activity. Then there was the tree which they decorated anyway they liked. I have a photo somewhere of one of them wearing my apron and stirring a pudding while beaming into the camera. It’s not just making puddings it’s making memories.

eddiecat78, no, I haven’t.
My GH version is less dark, dense and heavy than anything I’ve ever had from a shop - people who don’t usually like Christmas pudding do often really like it. Though I always provide an alternative and emphasise that nobody has to have any to be polite!
Dh and I will always scoff whatever’s left. 🐷

The only booze in it is ale, but it tastes and smells supremely Christmassy and TBH I do enjoy making it, and don’t find it too much of a faff at all.

Got all my ingredients sorted and listed for a pudding and a cake, Mary Berry recipes.
I always think of the 'My naughty little sister story", whilst making them her gran made them on Bonfire night because she was frightened of the fireworks. I used to do the same with one DD when tiny for the same reason.

Made mine last Sunday, both in the freezer; easy microwave recipe, used it for over 20 years.
Mince pies on the to do list for next weekend; not bothering with a cake, as no-one is fussed.
Sausage rolls to do next month.

Yes, I shall go down to town on Wednesday and get my fruit. I love anything with dried fruit, so I will make the cake too this week. It’s 10 miles to our town, so it will be an outing!

Christmas cake in the oven right now. Morrisons are selling bags of presoaked (in brandy) fruit, with a recipe on the back, so trying that but had to use gluten free flour and Plant butter as one child has gluten and dairy intolerance.

We have a family Sunday lunch at the end of November on the actual Stir Up Sunday and everyone stirs the puddings then, and I cook them the following day.

Used to but stopped years ago whenDH won M and S cake and pud in Xmas raffle. Everyone said they were wonderful so I thought “why bother?” Bought theirs fir few years then switched to Aldi or Lidl ones and they are even better. The luxury ones.

My mother used to make them. I don't. No one likes it and it sits for a year drying out and then gets thrown away. We make trifle and Yule log.
I sometimes buy a tiny one and we have one bite each!

Mine were done and dusted a few weeks ago. That was because I wanted to bring some to the US, where I am now, for my son.

I packed them with my dh’s stuff and when we arrived we found his case had been searched by the TSA. I guess circular, foil-wrapped packages must look a bit suspicious on X-rays/scans. 👀

Regarding slow cookers, I just use my usual recipe and steam it for the normal amount of hours. It’s a great way to do it as you can go out without worrying about it boiling dry.

Afraid not Witzend none of our family are fussed, MrJ and I rarely eat a pud anyway and we’re at my daughter’s this year. In past years, she and the grandchildren have been here and we usually have a chocolate roulade she’s made, or not in our case.
Best of luck to those all stirring up.

Yes - and a cake. I always do them at half term, even though I’ve been retired from teaching for some years. I made my first cake age about 15 as part of O - level cookery, and have made one every year since, with slight tweaks along the way.
I remember the anxiety during the pandemic of not being able to buy all the ingredients!
The other job I always do during the October half term is swapping my clothes over - away go the summer things, out come the winter jumpers. Feeling equal measures of sadness and anticipation, I think!

5beam2 , yes! Its forgetting to keep an eye on the steaming that I worry about, one year I was stuck with Miss Mattie in 'Cranford' and boiled myself dry ......
Feeling all puddingly now, cant wait to get started!