20 December: Christmas Cake

Christmas cake is also known as fruit cake and usually contains dried fruits such as raisins and usually some alcohol. Some things you might not know about Christmas cake:

1. The Romans didn't have Christmas, but they did have a cake similar to the Christmas cakes we eat today. They mixed pine nuts, barley mash, Pomegranate seeds, Raisins and honeyed Wine and shaped it into a cake they called “satura,” meaning a mixture of sweet and sour ingredients. The modern word “satire” is derived from this.
2. Christmas cake wasn't always eaten at Christmas. Originally, it would be saved for Twelfth Night. That we eat them at Christmas now is down to Oliver Cromwell, who banned feasting on Twelfth Night. Hence people would still make the cake, but they'd eat it at Christmas instead.
3. Another tradition was to keep some of the Christmas cake mixture and use it to make another cake at Easter.
4. According to Harper’s Index, a fruit cake is as dense as mahogany.
5. If you don't manage to polish off all the Christmas cake on Christmas Day, never fear. If it has been made using the correct preservatives and is properly stored, it can keep a long time. Not only could you eat it next Christmas, but up to 25 years later. This may be because of the alcohol content in the cake.
6. In Yorkshire, Christmas cake is eaten with Cheese. Wensleydale is a popular choice.
7. In Japan, “Christmas cake” was a slang term for a woman who wasn't married by the age of 25 (unsold after the 25^th), although there is less stigma attached to marrying later, if at all, these days.
8. As with Christmas pudding, it is a tradition to add a coin, such as a sixpence, to the cake mixture. The person who finds it is supposed to receive good luck (although breaking a tooth and having a trip to an emergency dentist is perhaps a meaning of the words “good luck” previously unknown to makind).
9. December is National Fruitcake Month.
10. Not everyone is fond of Christmas cake. It's almost like Marmite – people love it or hate it. In Manitou Springs, Colorado, some of the haters came up with the idea of an annual “Great Fruitcake Toss” on January 3rd. Although the event hasn't taken place for a few years, there is interest in reviving the tradition.

My Christmas Novella!

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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