UK Xmas cake is fruit cake with white icing like a wedding cake and a snow scene on top often with the words Merry Christmas and a small green non edible tree. The cake has a band or ribbon in contrasting colour, often green or with red and green.
Scotland Dundee cake, a heavy fruit cake containing alcohol with almonds on top.
France has their equivalent of our yule log called buche de Noel, chocolate icing on a roll-up cake (which in England we call a Swiss roll) imitating a wooden log, the sort you would have had in the fireplace to keep you warm in winter.
Italy panettone, a flat top half cone, rather like a brioche or sweet bread, with sultanas or similar scattered through.
Panettone will be more common in Italian restaurants or delicatessens in London.
Stollen, German long pale cake like a squashed Swiss roll, with icing on top and marzipan though the middle and some sultanas or candied fruits scattered through.
This picture shows a stollen with colourful candied peel in red and green. Picture from wikipedia article on stollen. You can also get stollen made with poppyseed. But my favourite is with marzipan.
This picture, also from the wikipedia article, shows the marzipan. Wikipedia pictures are amiable from their site with suitable captions, credits and more details.
(The other pictures on this post are Angela Lansbury copyright. Write to me if you want to use them.)
You can buy most of these cakes in most supermarkets in England and on line.
Here are some cakes made to order at Genuine Cakes of Hatch End. (See my previous post for more pictures and their address.)
Scotland Dundee cake, a heavy fruit cake containing alcohol with almonds on top.
France has their equivalent of our yule log called buche de Noel, chocolate icing on a roll-up cake (which in England we call a Swiss roll) imitating a wooden log, the sort you would have had in the fireplace to keep you warm in winter.
Italy panettone, a flat top half cone, rather like a brioche or sweet bread, with sultanas or similar scattered through.
Panettone will be more common in Italian restaurants or delicatessens in London.
Stollen, German long pale cake like a squashed Swiss roll, with icing on top and marzipan though the middle and some sultanas or candied fruits scattered through.
(The other pictures on this post are Angela Lansbury copyright. Write to me if you want to use them.)
You can buy most of these cakes in most supermarkets in England and on line.
Here are some cakes made to order at Genuine Cakes of Hatch End. (See my previous post for more pictures and their address.)
Probably the cheapest Xmas treat for tea time or after lunch or dinner is the mince pie. You can get a set of six in Morrisons and many supermarkets at a range of prices, often for as little as £1.
Mince pie with star topping.
If you are planning to buy a Christmas cake to take overseas, check the use by date. One year I was planning to go to Singapore from London and shopped early. However, while waiting at checkout I read all the labels. The cake I planned to buy expired the date before my arrival in Singapore!
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