Heather Brown is preparing: she has easy tips for baking the cake, making mincemeat, and sourcing local Dorset produce for a festive feast
Now that it’s November and Mariah Carey has declared that it really is the Christmas season, I thought it would be good to help you look at some ways that you can get ahead with your seasonal food and drink this Christmas.
Christmas Cake
Fruit cake is one of my favourite types of cake – my recipe for my Christmas version was in The BV back in November 2020 (you can find it here). At the time I said: ‘It’s traditional to make your Christmas cake in November so it has plenty of time for the flavours to develop. But we all know life gets in the way some years. The magic of my Christmas cake recipe is that whether it’s early November or you’re whisking it up in a panic on Christmas Eve, it will always provide that delicious, deep, Christmassy flavour.’
It is a wonderful, flexible recipe and by cooking the fruits, butter and sugar all together first in a pan, it really allows all those flavours to meld together before being baked.
While this recipe tastes just as good if you do end up making it in December, it is definitely a job that can be done ahead of time: just wrap the cooked, cooled cake well in parchment paper, and store it in a box with a good lid until you want to ice it in the days before Christmas.
Mincemeat
I love a mince pie … and nothing can beat a mince pie made with homemade mincemeat!
Nowhere near as complicated as many people believe, it’s simple to make and keeps for months. I don’t even bother to store mine in jars now, because I know it will all be gone by Christmas! I just put it in a large Tupperware tub with an airtight lid.
You can find my mincemeat recipe from the BV magazine in 2020 here. ‘The difference between homemade mincemeat and supermarket mincemeat is so significant that I would encourage everyone to have a go this Christmas (or to buy mincemeat from a small producer who will have handmade it in small batches at home for you).
The recipe is not complicated, but it does take a little time – fortunately most of that time is spent waiting for things to soak or cook slowly so you can get on and leave it to it!’
For a super-quick version of mince pies in a hurry, you can find my recipe for mincemeat swirls on the same link!
Order your turkey
There are some lovely local farms and butchers in Dorset where turkeys are available for Christmas. Ordering from your local turkey farm means you can be confident that the turkey has been reared ethically, you can speak to the farmers themselves – and you’ll know that the meat will be delicious as well as free from extras like excess water.
Dorset turkey farms include Brunsell Turkey Farm near Stalbridge – brunsellfarm.co.uk and Chilcott Turkeys near Dorchester chilcott-turkeys.co.uk. Good local butchers will also source their turkeys from local farms in and around Dorset – but do order yours now to make sure you secure one of Dorset’s finest.
Buy your local produce
Christmas is the time when we all try and ‘buy up’ – it’s often the one time of year that we’ll get the organic veg, the nicer cream, the fancy cheese …
There are oodles of amazing Christmas markets throughout Dorset, kicking off with the Athelhampton House Christmas Market organised by Dorset Food & Drink on Saturday 9th November.
Aside from being a lovely day out, Christmas markets are a fantastic way to sample local produce for your Christmas table – and you can buy direct from the makers. Farm shops are another good source of local produce, as are local independent high street delicatessens and Dikes in Stalbridge. Producers will already be taking Christmas orders via their websites, and offering easy delivery so you don’t even need to leave the house! Start now, and this year try buying locally for your cheese, chutneys and jams, sauces and syrups, oils and vinegars, fresh veg … let’s all make it a Dorset festive table.
