Adventures in Baking: Jamaican Christmas Cake

It has been over a week since I last posted. This Holiday Season has been very busy,  but very satisfying, filled with all the things I love surrounding the Christmas theme.

This year one thing was particularly special:  my friend Kemi and I were both in Switzerland and not in our home countries (Jamaica and Bermuda) and so for once, we were able to celebrate together.

Kemi is one of my oldest and dearest friends here in Switzerland and as we both share a love for baking we decided to bake together. The first time was my birthday cake, this time Kemi’s version of  Jamaican Christmas Cake or Jamaican Christmas pudding.

With the British influence in Jamaican cuisine a strong factor, this cake is very much like the British Christmas pudding. But of course, both of us being Island Girls, we haven’t had too many opportunities to have a real British Christmas pudding, and so I can not say exactly how much it follows the same recipe. The only Christmas Pudding experience I had prior to this baking spree was of course, my Mom’s fruit cake, which is similar but more  of a loaf, and then watching the English program: Kirsties Homemade Christmas.

Although Kemi’s recipe was a traditional dish from back home, she didn’t have one particular recipe for the dish which she followed, but is in the process of developing her own.  This time she used a combination of her favorite recipe book, a family recipe from her husband’s grandmother and her own baking sense.

I was so pleased to be able to learn about a traditional dish from my friend’s home country and be able to share in the actual baking of it which is perhaps even more special than the end result.

Thanks Kemi for being able to share in your Christmas baking traditions! Maybe next year, you can share with us your recipe?!

Do any of you readers out there have a traditional Christmas dish that you bake each year? Whatever it is, whether it be a cake, a pie or a pudding, or some baking genre I’ve forgotten,   I would love to hear about it and your experience this Christmas!

Sweet Dreaming,

Jodie