A very Dutch Celebration Christmas Wreath

Prettige Kertdagen

My Dutch friend, Cobi, who has lived in Yorkshire for over 30 years, is busy making her delicious Celebration Christmas Wreath to her Grandma’s (Oma’s) special recipe.  

It’s similar to the Celebration Stick she makes at Easter.

The Christmas season is in full swing in Holland as on 5th December St Nicholas (Sinterklass) arrives in Amsterdam with Black Peter (Zwarte Piet) in a boat from Spain, bringing presents and sweets for the children. The adults wrap their presents up for family and friends, rather like Secret Santa presents. They write a poem (Cobi says it can be humorous but not unkind) to highlight the receiver’s personality. Sometimes there’s a treasure hunt around the house with messages to lead you to your gift. Christmas Day is usually a quieter time with a church service and family m

Celebration Dutch Christmas Wreath

Filling

125g   ground almonds

125g sugar 

1 egg (Meryl’s Tip : Since this recipe is cooked in the oven, I’m happy to use a raw egg in the filling. Otherwise use Grandma Abson’s Almond Paste recipe and bind the mixture with water and lemon juice)

Finely grated rind of a lemon

Juice of a lemon (If a stronger flavour is preferred, then use more lemon rind).

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until it forms a paste. Cover and leave to stand for an hour.

Puff pastry

To decorate

Apricot jam

Glazed cherries (mixed colours)  and strips of orange peel

Roll out the pastry thinly, about ½ cm thick, into an oblong shape of about 35-40 cm long and 12-15 cm wide.  Roll the almond mixture (marzipan) into a long sausage shape and place it on the pastry. Wrap the pastry around the mixture and shape it into a circle. Slightly wet the sides and ends and push one end into the other to stick it together.  Place the wreath on a baking tray. Brush with beaten egg. To finish off the decoration, cut out some holly shapes, stars or bells and lay them on the top of the wreath. Place in a hot oven, about 220C, 425F, Mark 7 for about 30-40 minutes.  Allow to cool. 

When completely cold, warm 4-5 tbsps of apricot jam in a pan until it’s runny.  Spread the jam over the baked wreath.  For a final decoration, you can use glazed cherries and orange peel strips as you wish.

 We love anything with Almond Paste. 

What’s your favourite recipe for this time of year? 

Go Dutch to celebrate Easter

Easter Celebration Stick

There is a significant Dutch influence in Yorkshire cooking since Dutch engineers came across to build the dykes to drain the flood water from the fields in the Vale of York and on the banks of the Humber. My Dutch friend, Cobi, who has lived in Yorkshire for over 30 years, remembers her Grandma’s baking. She writes …

‘My Grandma was born in a small village, in the North of Holland, in a county called Friesland and lived there all her life until she died. She was married to a fisherman and they had their own fish shop. Grandma only baked on birthdays and special days like Christmas and Easter because there was very little money and baking was classed as a luxury. Grandma was always busy in the fish shop selling the fish Grandad had caught. Friesland had its own language. In Dutch the word for grandma is Oma (I'm Oma to my grandson), but the Fries word for Oma is Beppe and that is what my brother and I called her.

This is Oma’s recipe for Celebration Stick. It’s delicious!

For the marzipan (almond) filling:

125g ground almonds

125g sugar

½  egg

Finely grated rind of a lemon

Juice of a lemon (If a stronger flavour is preferred, then use more lemon zest).

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, cover and leave to stand for an hour or so.

For the decoration:

Apricot jam

Glazed cherries

Strips of orange peel

For the pastry:

Puff pastry is used in this recipe, so make your own or use readymade frozen puff pastry.

Roll out the pastry thinly, about ½ cm thick, into an oblong shape of about 35-40 cm long and 12-15 cm wide.

Roll the almond mixture (marzipan) into a long sausage shape, slightly shorter than the oblong.  Place the almond mixture on the pastry oblong and roll the pastry over the marzipan. Slightly wet the edges and stick together.  Do the same with both ends.  Place the long roll on the baking tray with the stuck side down. Brush with beaten egg and place in a hot oven, about 225C, 430F, for about 30-40 minutes or until baked.  Do not open the oven for the first 15 minutes.  Take out and allow to cool. 

When completely cold, warm 4-5 tbsps of apricot jam in a pan until very runny.  Spread the runny jam over the baked roll.  For final decoration use glazed cherries and orange peel strips. Decorate with Easter eggs or Easter chicks.

Cut into small slices

Happy Easter!

Diamonds are forever Part 2

A Diamond Wedding Party Cake   

Last week was P and C’s Diamond wedding party. They invited 25 family and friends to lunch in a restaurant near their home. We ate their Diamond Celebration cake as a dessert after the speeches.

I did two tiers with the bottom tier as a fruit cake, as I showed you in the recipe in Diamonds are Forever Part 1. The second tier was a Victoria Sandwich so everyone had a choice. I followed Grandma Abson’s recipe for a traditional Victoria Sandwich with Raspberry Jam and butter cream filling. 

I covered the fruit cake with homemade marzipan/almond paste and then covered both cakes in 'ready to roll' icing.   This way of icing cakes is a real life saver as I’ve never done intricate icing unlike Grandma and her niece Ivy, who both excelled in producing amazing sugar craft flowers. I used a cake polisher to give a smooth and shiny finish to the icing.  

Kay at Flowers by Kay made a lovely Lily of the Valley decoration for the top of the cake. The shimmery green ribbon and the sparkling ‘60’ gave a final flourish to the masterpiece! I can tell you that we all had a great time celebrating their 60 years together.

The happy couple ready to cut the cake!