I;ve fallen into a black hole of these videos. Can't stop watching them

I happened on this recipe vlog and it made me smile. I must first say that I am a very old man, however, this all is just precisely how I recall watching my grandmother making this 6th of January cake...and each cake in the series. I still have her wooden 'girths' as souvenirs in my kitchen. As a child I helped (?) her to tie the string. There is a special kind of slip knot to pull it together and a "slip knot song" to help make it correctly. ..this is like a girls skipping song. ( of my age ) Our 6th January cake recipe had many more nuts than you showed and nutmeg...which was a very precious spice to my grandma and the little nut was kept in its own little box. Watching this brought back so many memories .. My grandma lived til 102 so this is many years old to me. It's a shame that we don't teach these traditions to our children as it was taught in my childhood. There were certainly different cakes for each of the twelve days of Christmas. The cakes evolved from a black moist very very sweet alcoholic Christmas day cake with molasses to the much "whiter" nutier cake you cooked for 12th night. They got wider too. There is another song about the sharing "rules"! Christmas Day cake was for the close family...( The family of Christ in fact ) and each day the sharing was spread wider.....hence widening the girth..to provide for more people.. So Boxing Day... (26th December) included the extended family...uncles and aunties only. It is a religious analogy of course...so the cake allowed for more sharing as the holiday progresses. One slice was for each different members of Christ's disciples too..I seem to recall. The 27th for example included closest dearest friends..( I think also St Peter) The 28th included then immediate neighbours. ..then the wider neighbourhood...I can't recall the whole song. ..but the twelfth night cake also includes a slice for the church which was taken to church. Each cake contains different fruits from sultanas to cherries to raisins ( yummy ) and different nuts... I feel most remiss to have not kept my grandma's book. It literally fell apart. I do know it was dated 1746 as she called it her Culloden or Cumberland cookbook ...after the year on the first page. Whether that counts as 18th century cookery or tradition I can't say...but in my memory we did eat a slice each "night". The adults had a small glass of different rich sweetened wine ( like Madeira wine or Port wine or Jerez wine) or spirits for each cake.. I still have a few of these glasses, they are very thick glass and the small bowl is about as big to contain a man's thumb to the first joint. As a child I had warmed milk...with a different spice or sweetener like cane syrup or some sort of molasses ( it tasted like rum so I guess it is molasses). We also used different honeys ..but always nutmeg on 12th night. The cake was set out to be admired ( and sniffed by us children) all day and always eaten ritually just as the sun had set... Enjoyable to see the American take on my English experience. Hope my remembrances make sense. If you can find the songs or the cycle of cakes, I'd love to see them in your vlogs.

Just two bros bakin' a cake.

As a child (I’m from the UK) I used to “help” my dad make one of these at Christmas time. I hope you enjoyed it - I absolutely loved it myself. Dad used a little black treacle and a little bit of stout to give it a deep, almost smoky undertone, the absolute mad lad that he was! Cheers!

Did you know that the reason that currents are so hard to find in the United States is because they were actually banned in the US in the 19th century. The lumber industry petitioned congress to ban the growth of both black and red currents in the US because they were the carriers of white pine blister rust. The blight was harmless to the berries but was killing the white pine tree which was a favorite lumber source at the time. Today, the ban is still in place in most northern states (the indigenous area of the white pine) but not in the southern states, but because the berries have not grown in the US for so long there is basically no market for them.

We made this cake about a year ago and were so impressed that we made it again to take to the family x-mas, and we just made it a third time to take to a work pot-luck. It's a good, strange but good, cake. I would have expected it to taste like a fruit cake, which I really dont like, but it really didnt taste that way at all. It does have a crumbly texture but it's not unpleasant. The sweet meats on the darkened crust of the cake are a bit chewy but the sweet meats in the crumb are not. 1. We used cranberries in place of currents, they give it a nice flavor with the orange and lemon. 2. we put the Sac in with the sweet meats, someone in a comment below did the same thing. 3. you have to put some tin foil over the top of it when you start cooking it or it will come out way, way too dark. 4. it does have to cook for 2 hours. If you test it after an hour the knife will come out clean but that seems to have more to do with the fact that the batter is so fluffy, not runny. One of the 3 cakes we took out after an hour, because it 'looked done' and the knife came out clean, only later to discover that the center had not cooked all the way. It had set up and seemed firm but, when it was poked it was clearly mushy-fluff-batter. The edges of the cake were salvageable. 5 and the last thing that we learned, it is better to candy your own peels then to buy them. The ones you make have a stronger flavor then the store bought kind. All you need to candy peel is sugar, water, and some time. I hope this helps others who want to make this interesting cake.

Soaking the garts often helped with scorching, as twelfth night cakes often were very big requiring long slow cooking ... Scottish texts carry many recipes from Tudor times. Often three/four items hidden in the cake Inc coin/ring/bean to represent the king of twelfth night. There were also other items hidden in the cake: If you got a clove you were a villain. If you got a twig you were a fool. If you got a rag you were a tarty girl. Sadly in the 1870’s, Queen Victoria outlawed the celebration of the Twelfth Night as a day of revelling, fearing everything would get out of hand. Though its memory has faded, people still associate Christmas with a fruit cake and you can keep the tradition alive by making your own.

Twelfth Night Cake (5lbs) Ingredients: 1lb butter 1/2 lb sugar 8 eggs, separated 3 cups or 1lb flour 3/4 tsp ground mace 3/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1/2 cup or jill of brandy 1/4 cup each candied orange, lemon and citron rind 1 cup slivered almonds 1 lb zante currents *optional silver coin or a bean Preparation Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Prepare tin/wooden baking pan (size? I'm guessing about 8-9" diameter & 3-4" high), line with parchment paper and butter so it doesn't stick. Mix Zante currants, candied rinds, and slivered almonds together. Mix mace and nutmeg into the flour. Whip egg yolks. Whip egg whites until stiff peak stage. Cream butter and sugar until white. Mix together eggs and sweet butter. Fold in flour mixture. Fold in sweetmeats (fruit mixture). Pour in the prepared baking pan and bake for about 2 hours or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and enjoy!

THANK YOU for getting the word out about "The 12 Days of Christmas" ; that they BEGIN on Christmas day and conclude on The Epiphany or the 12th Night - in Louisiana this launches MARDI GRAS season! Merry Christmas everyone!

We are Episcopalian and we absolutely celebrate the twelve days of Christmas in my church and within our family. We always leave our home the day after Christmas and head to Williamsburg,Virginia for a wonderful family vacation of sorts. Things are quieter at this time,so we don’t have to fight the crowds. We like to stay at The Lodge,but there are more budget friendly places in the area. Bruton Parish Church is an active episcopal church right on the main drag. We always try to stick around for their epiphany service on the 12 day (January 6 or the closest Sunday to that date) The town of Williamsburg also puts on an amazing first night celebration on New Year’s Eve that my kids loved as teens. Venues all over the city have different events at various times the entire evening. The running about is too much for me,so I curl up by the fire in the pub of the Lodge and enjoy rum runners,the live music,and often a good game with new friends of trivial pursuit!! The kids would have their passes,the city map,and event schedule and go and enjoy everything from comedy acts,to puppet shows,to exhibits (transportation trolleys were included) and end up at midnight at the stadium of the college of William and Mary for some great bands and fireworks. Fun,fun,fun if you’re close enough to enjoy it some year! Other cities do first night as well. I know Alexandra,VA does and so does Boston. Anyway,it’s a marathon,not a sprint... But we keep our tree and decorations up until twelfth night,when we have a party to end the season. We continue the upbeat feel though to February ....until Lent begins 40 days before our Easter season. I love following the liturgical calendar,and the 12 days of Christmas are close to my heart ♥️

We still have my great-grandmother's recipe 12th night cake every year, normally cut into it on new years eve and have a piece after the clock hits 12 and we sing auld lang syne, My mother makes it months in advance and steeps it in brandy to keep it moist.

Wow. This really makes me appreciate such a small thing as an electric whisk and a springform cake tin. 😂

My grandmother used to bake a similar cake with almonds, raisins and other dried fruit for the occasion, which is also my father's birthday, so it doubled as his birthday cake. It would have coins in it for the children since my grandparents couldn't afford presents, but the original tradition is probably just having the one coin in it. She would bake it in the shape of a star to represent the star that led the three kings or wise men to Christ. I also have family from Louisiana where for Epiphany and Mardi Gras you have the king cake with a baby Jesus in the cake. The king cake doesn't have any of the fruit or nuts in it like the twelfth cake but does have nutmeg and cinnamon and is coloured purple, green, and gold to represent the three kings and the Christian values of Justice (purple), Faith (Green), and Wealth/Prosperity (Gold) for the community. So the US does celebrate Epiphany with a French variation of the cake, it's just that it is only celebrated in one state.

I followed your recipe and iced it. invited my friends over cut into it and it was absolutely gorgeous both appearance-wise and taste.

I love this series. I'm on a severely reduced sodium diet and most modern cakes are full of salt: baking powder, baking soda, added salt, and I can't eat most of them. This sounds like a cake that I could enjoy without worry, especially if I substitute unsalted butter in.

10:17 - I love the simultaneous "oh wow" reaction. I can't wait to bake this cake for Christmas 2019 :)

I always boil raisins or currants in orange juice before using them in a recipe.

A full pound of butter? You have my attention!

that's pretty much what we have here in the UK and generic Christmas cake...the only things different is we soak the peel and dried fruits in brandy and coat the cake in marzipan...obviously with the odd ingredients that differ such as nutmeg and cinnamon but still pretty much a Christmas cake

That butter has a beautiful golden yellow color.

I am so glad I discovered u...I am a historian and I never tire of learning our history...ppl today take so much for granted with all the technologies....I spread the word to have a back up pack with water, matches, canned food, etc...in case the lights go out bc if they do and they will, ppl will panic and we will be thrust back into the 18th 17th century...

If I remember right, the time before Christmas (Advent) was like a little Lent - a time of fasting. Then the Christmas season or Christmastide would last 40 days until (I think) the Presentation of the Lord at the temple. Liturgically speaking, Christmas and the Epiphany are a lot closer in importance than we celebrate secularly. Anyway, I think we will try this.

i really respect you for sharing history in the best way. I am so happy someone honors cooking from so long ago such as the 18th century. im watching all your videos, i love honoring historic times, especially recipes because so many don't understand that recipes die, like imagine.. never having recipe from a great great grandfather or someone who was very important from so long ago.. recipes from the 18th century at least i find to be very difficult to find that uses the actual tools at the time especially. it just feels so wonderful to see recipes from this time to not be forgotten. Seeing your videos are tranquil and educational, i cant wait to learn more.

it amazing how wonderful to praise a cooking passed down from so long ago. thank you so much for honoring the cooking as a masterpiece.

It almost reminds me of an Italian Panettone during the holidays

This is known as the Twelfth Day or Kings cake. The bean or coin was a throw back to ancient fertility rites. It was replaced with a small doll. It is still used in Mardi Gras celebrations.

This may have to become an alternate to our yearly Dundee Cake (a long time favourite from Delia Smith which never fails to please). I really enjoy the JT&S videos, and this one was really informative - as always!

Jon, thanks so much for your videos. The cooking ones are my favorites. Can't wait for the next one

Fantastic! I can't imagine anyone else doing what you are. And it's so wonderful.

Bringing history to life - LOVE your channel!

Merry Christmas to you! And thanks for bring up the "12 Days"! They are so much better than the modern "sort of starting six weeks ago and done by 5pm on the 25th"!

We made this cake for years... it was our Christmas cake, but we always tossed the fruit and raisins etc in some flour before adding. Have done it with dried tropical fruits, suggest soak these fruits in brandy night before as too dry, and they pull moisture from the surrounding cake. Great for storing and taking it on hikes, quick energy .

Im addicted to your videos ever since I came across them (which was last night 😂) thank you for doing this, coming from a person obsessed with the 18th and 19th century! much love from Pakistan

I made this before, many years ago though, this will inspire me to re-visit it. The tradition was to put a pea and a bean in it, relating to the 12th night party games of crowning someone a King or a Queen for the night. Like putting a coin in a Christmas Pudding probably not that practical today though, hence a potential choking hazard. The recipe I have is to ice it with an elaborate crown on top, this wasn't the original recipe I believe but became popular later on.

This reminds me of the cake served in my uncle's old cafe. I remember him setting it down and at first I turned up my nose, expecting it to be like the doorstops that we think of as fruit cake nowadays. But once I gave it a go, it was absolutely delicious, especially with a mug of tea (or, if Papa thought you were ill, hot spiced wine. I swear that his idea was to get you too drunk to care you're sick and miserable).

It is absolutely ridiculous how much I love these videos.

Traditional English Twelfth night cake, Christmas cake and wedding cake was pretty similar, rich fruit cakes like this one, though Twelfth night cakes are a bit lighter. Unlike a Christmas cake that takes a couple of months to mature, Twelfth cakes don't but they're better a couple of days later.

I'm very glad to see this video, as it actually answers a question that has piqued my curiosity for the past few years. I've been doing readings of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' at a local bookstore in conjunction with a local ballet company's adaptation of the story. In Stave Three, when Dickens describes the 'kind of throne' on which the Spirit of Christmas Present sits, it is made up of all kinds of foodstuffs, including 'immense twelfth-cakes'. So, apparently, twelfth-cakes were still well-known and popular in 1843, when the book was published. I'd been wondering about that item, and now that I know what he meant, I plan to make at least one in the not-too-distant future. It looks absolutely delicious, and quite the thing for a holiday celebration at such a time of year.

That crust on the outside looks wonderful, I love a crispy outside!

You guys are hysterical together! Thanks for a fabulous recipe! Happy New Year!

The tree stays up until Epiphany! In my family, my uncle is reviving the tradition of "wacky cake" for family birthdays; coins are baked into it.

Kinda like the King Cake we get in New Orleans. A little baby doll is hidden in the cake. Whoever gets the doll has to buy the next King Cake.

Thank you so much for posting this incredible video. It's amazing to look back on the past and see how they really did it! Thank you

I can´t believe how welcoming and nice these amazing lovely guys are! ♥

All Catholics and Orthodox still celebrate the entire Octave of Christmas and Easter. You guys are missing out.

I always wondered where the 'fruit cake' had its roots.

I would definitely pay for a history lesson/culinary lesson cooking some of these recipes in that kitchen! That would be an incredible experience.

I'm officially in love with this channel. We're so used to modern conveniences I'd never thought about cakes. This was an amazing lesson.

Reminds me of pannetone that my Sicilian grandfather always makes for Christmas!

How can anyone dislike this???? I'm baffled beyond belief

Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! For the last three years me and my grandmother have been making 2 or 3 of these cakes around christmas, and has quickly become one of our family’s alltime favourites!

That looks really good! I love your channel, the videos are relevant for years to come, they never go out of style.

Well you will find that any liturgical church goer still celebrates the 12 days of Christmas. It is celebrated in many homes and churches throughout the US.

Greek Orthodox considers the Christmas season until epiphany ( Dec 25 - Jan 6), which is twelve days. Interesting about the cake, in that, we also cut a cake with a hidden coin, (Basilopita, pronounced Vasilopita), on New years day, who ever gets the coin has luck for the rest of the year. Probably related with the twelve night cake, perhaps?

The Christmas season begins on the vigil (night before) of Christmas Day. It continues through January sixth which is the twelfth day of Christmas. Catholics still celebrate twelve days of Christmas. The four weeks leading up to Christmas are in the season of Advent which is NOT Christmas but a full season to prepare our hearts for the Incarnation Our Lord and his second coming. If you want twelve days of Christmas (rather than the one day celebrated by our culture) consider the Catholic faith! Thank you for such entertaining and professional videos. We've been re-inactors for years and appreciate all you do. Love your sense of humor!

What a lovely video, get to learn all about the history of cooking and the recipe you guys show. Amazing wish this show was on tv

You forgot to tell everyone about what happens when the person gets the slice of cake with the coin!

The idea of epiphany is still kept in many countries. I.e. in Brazil you only remove your Xmas decorations on that day.

Im in love with this channel also. I binge several episodes at a time. It makes you appreciate the way they did things back in those times.

WOW that's amazing! Such a beautiful cake. I can just see the mother, or cook prepare this wonderful masterpiece.. to anyone who makes this enjoy!

in the UK its gone from a 12 day celebration to 9 its now from CHRISTMAS EVE (24.DEC) to NEW YEARS DAY (JAN.1) and we put lots of tiny holes in the top using a needle or cocktail stick 7 let brandy soak into the holes then its wraped and left to mature for 6 weeks it improves with time ( its not Christmas without one )

You have no idea how disappointed I was when you showed the ingredients and I discovered that the dark bits were not chocolate chips. Story of my life.

What a great cake. It looks amazing. Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. You do a fantastic job.

This looks just delightful! I want to try making a half-sized version of this next holiday season. Thank you for this wonderful video!

And the cake was baked late November wrapped in cheesecloth ,stored in a cake tin and drizzled with rum every other week till Christmas 😊

I can't help it that the butter n egg yolk were added into the egg whites first after the emphasis on retaining air as leavening component of the cake. It'd be better if yolk is mixed into the creamed butter followed by sultanas and then flour. finally incorporating egg whites in 3rds.

Love this! This is how my mom made her cake for 12th night. Amazing how so many of our family recipes are so old!

Looks awesome. Taste even better. Thanks for sharing.

Baking the cake in a cast iron pan also protects the edges

Any chance you will offer just the wood hoop as well as the full sieve for sale? Save us a little money and we wouldn't be wasting the sieve part :-)

Gotta try this one!! Thanks for the great videos, and a Happy New Year to you good folks!!

This looks just like Panettone! Italians still serve this kind of cake during the Christmas season.

haha....we were poor when we were young and lived in the country we always creamed our butter by hand....and still do. I guess it's something that stayed.

It's Pagan!! 12 days of Christmas which begin on Christmas day and end on January 6 originally came from the 12 days of Yuletide which began at sunset on December 20, known as Mother Night, and ended on the night of December 31, the Night of the Oak King and the Roman day of Hecate. There is no coincidence that the true Twelfth Night is now celebrated as New Year's Eve and with the same old revelry as when it was known as Twelfth Night.

Merry Christmas 🎄 look forward to other cooking videos. Subscribed 👍🏼

I received your calender in the mail and came across it on the December cover. Can't wait to try this recipie this Christmas! Thank you!

We are Catholic in America. We celebrate the twelve days!

Being Welsh it's so refreshing to hear an American refer correctly to my country as Great Britain instead of England....thanks ☺

To my opinion that was your best video yet. What a beautiful cake!

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing.

man you could make wood rings for the bottom instead of the string and have your own lost 18th century item. I like that set up with the wood and then just make a wood ring to tighten up the paper. thats awesome to me and I'm am sure someone of that time would have thought the same thing. I wonder if you guys will ever try cheese.... I am learning that myself now

5:10 "The recipes can be pretty specific, and usually require that you have your ingredients ahead of time" like Nutmeg? "This recipe calls for a full pound of" Nutmeg? "Butter... as well as a half pound of" Nutmeg? "Sugar. We have 8" cups of Nutmeg? "Eggs... after that, we have 3 cups, or about a pound" of Nutmeg? "of flour... along with 3 quarters of a teaspoon of" _Nutmeg?!?_ "of ground mace and" _AND?!?_ "ground nutmeg" *FIREWORKS!!!!*

Merry Christmas for both of you and your family.

WONDERFUL VIDEO! VERY INFORMATIVE AND INSPIRING! THANK YOU SO MUCH! 🎅

In the Dutch we have a special day called"Driekoningen" (I think Belgium and Germany know it 2) and on that day all ppl who can be Prince Carnival eat of a massive cake, wich has a bean or coin in it. Whoever gets the peace with the"prinsenboon" becomes Prince Carnival. The prince Is in charge of the city together with his "ministers" during Carnival.

Anglicans today still observe the Twelve Days of Christmas more or less.

Looks wonderful--and most likely tasted wonderful too!

Fascinating to see this version of the recipe. My great grandmother was in service to a family in the late 19th century. She worked her way up from scullery maid to cook. I expect this was similar to the cakes should would have made. Fascinating to watch. My mother used to make a wonderful rich Christmas cake which she diligently feed. It was very well fed by the time it was cut and served!

Do you drink the gill of brandy or soak the fruit in it before adding it to the batter? Or do you wrap the cake in cheesecloth and soak it in brandy? Personally, I would use three gills of brandy; one to sip on whilst baking, one to soak the fruit in and one to soak the cloth in to store the cake. Thanks for making these videos guys.

My Italian grandmother made a very similar cake!

I enjoyed watching you guys make this recipe!

Thank you for making this video. We're going to try that in a modern kitchen. Happy New Year to you all.

What happened to the brandy? I can't figure out when you added it. Or is it just to drink as you whip the eggs for 30 minutes? :)

Yes, we do "do that" (12 days of Christmas) here in America. It is a Christian tradition carried on in Anglican / Episcopal churches.

Beautiful! Looks great!

Ty for Sharing All These Wonderful Recipes

God bless you guys!

Is this where the modern-day fruit cake started from? They sound so much alike with all the fruit and nuts.

Absolutely nothing makes me feel as wholesome as these videos do

That looks delicious....Yumm. Thank you for sharing