I visited with him a few times since I posted here last time. Question...best way to store Christmas Cake...Christmas Cake needs to breath. So wrapping it in a few layers of brown paper (or the kind of brown paper that you would wrap meat in with the waxy part on one side) is the best. If you wrap Christmas cake with plastic it will go moldy sooner because it can't breath. Guess it depends on how fast it will be eaten whether it will go moldy. Question...wax paper or aluminum to line the pans with for Christmas cake... Never use them. If you cook with the aluminum you will be having to pick the aluminum off the side of the cake later. He remembers spending about an hour to pick out the aluminum before he iced the cake. Someone had baked it and asked him to use the Christmas cake and decorate if for their daughter's wedding cake. He decorated hundreds and hundreds of wedding cakes over the years. When you bake the Christmas cake you are to start at a high temperature and then turn it down. The high temperature is too hot for wax paper which will 'mess up' the cake. He said it doesn't cook properly if you use was paper. Best to use brown paper and coat it with butter. Do not use anything but butter to grease it with. He recalls someone using lard to grease with. That was the worst tasting Christmas Cake he said. Brenda

My father had a long English ancestry and made this himself when I was young. I still make it every once in a while at Christmas. I think this is what you are looking for. English Plum Pudding 8 ounces mixed candied fruit (this includes the cherries) 4 ounces candied citron 4 ounces candied pineapple 1/4 pound butter 1/2 cup walnuts 1 1/2 cups raisons 1 cup currants 1 Tbsp. cinnamon 1 1/2 teas. ginger (grated finely) 1/4 teas. nutmeg 1/2 teas. allspice 1/4 teas salt 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup strawberry preserves 1 1/2 cups dry bread crumbs 4 eggs 2 Tbsp. milk 1/2 cup brandy 1/2 cup sherry Chop candied fruit, citron, pineapple, and walnuts. In a large bowl combine fruit, citron, pineapple, walnuts, raisons, currants, preserves and bread crumbs. Beat eggs, sugar, butter for 3 minutes. Add salt and spices. Beat in milk, brandy and sherry. Add egg mixture to fruit mixture, mix well. Turn into a well-buttered 1 1/2 quart Pyrex bowl. Wrap bowl completely from the bottom up with large squares of cheesecloth in several layers and thicknesses, and secure with string tied in bow at the top. Place mold on trivet in large kettle or roasting pan. Pour boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the cheesecloth wrapped bowl. Cover. Steam pudding 4 hours. Water should boil gently. Add water as needed. Unmold and serve or cool and store. Loosen edge of pudding from mold with spatula and turn out on serving tray. Flame pudding. Serve with hard sauce. To Store: Refrigerate, still in bowl wrapped in cheesecloth. Can be stored several weeks. Hard Sauce 2/3 cup butter, softened. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups powdered sugar In small bowl cream butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and powdered sugar. Serve with pudding as side dish to dollop on like whipped cream. Brandy for flaming. To flame pudding: Pour several Tbsp. brandy over hot pudding. Heat 1/2 cup brandy in small, tall saucepan. When vapor rises from brandy, ignite, pour flaming brandy over pudding. Hard sauce can be made one or two days before serving if pudding is stored. If pudding stored, steam cheesecloth wrapped pudding 50 to 60 minutes in lidded kettle or 'til heated throughout. Loosen edge of pudding with spatula and turn out on serving tray. Pour several Tbsp. brandy on pudding. Simmer 1/4 cup brandy and ignite; pour on pudding, Serve with hard sauce.

It's a regional thing.....where did your grandmother live? In the midwest ( and I am talking Ohio to Iowa) they use jello as "seasoning". I believe the cream was whipped and the dry jello mixed in, then the drained peaches and the marshmallows folded in and allowed to sit over nite. Using this method the Jello doesn't "gel". The Amish down the road from me make such a thing out of tapioca, jello, whipped cream or cool whip and mini marshmallows. It's not really dessert but more of another side like pickles or applesauce. Linda C

That particular cream and green combination is an old (like a century old) one. With the marble and tile and shelves, that kitchen is a mod/trad one that really works without being at all fussy (I think anyway). Of course it helps to start with a perfectly proportioned Georgian terraced house with giant windows! Here's the link. I was a little rushed before. Here is a link that might be useful: the kitchen