Name: The Twelve Cakes of Christmas
Brand: Otago University Press (NZ)
SKU: 9781877578199
Price: 13.46 GBP
Availability: InStock

The Twelve Cakes of Christmas

An evolutionary history, with recipes

By (author): Mary Brown, By (author): Helen Leach

Published by Otago University Press (NZ)

Temporarily Out-of-Stock Available to Pre-order

£17.95

£13.46

Published: 01-Jan-2011
ISBN: 9781877578199

Hardback
192 Pages
b/w & colour illus

Subjects:
Christianity
Cakes
baking
icing & sugarcraft
Christmas

Quantity

Many popular recipes come from lineages that can be traced back for decades, even centuries. Festive cakes have been made in December for at least two thousand years. Using archaeological evidence and ancient books, the authors define the key ingredients of the cakes that would eventually be served on Twelfth Night, at the end of the Christmas season. From 17th century English cookbooks, they identify recipes that would have been made as twelfth cakes, full of expensive ingredients like raisins, almonds, sweet wine and candied peel, but made like fruit-breads, with yeast.

Helen Leach ONZM is an Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Otago and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. She has a special interest in the anthropology of domestic life, including cooking and gardening. With her sisters Mary Browne and Nancy Tichborne, she has co-authored ten books on growing and cooking vegetables and on bread making. Her most recent book is Kitchens, a history of the New Zealand kitchen in the 20th century. She was awarded a Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Medal for contributions in Garden History in 2008. In 2019 she became an Associate of Honour in the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture (AHRIH).