This month's Melbourne Cake Club theme is Traditions, for the festive season. Apart from Christmas Cake and Plum Pudding, there are no cake traditions in my family for Christmas. For that reason, I went for what may have been a tradition for my Prussian and German ancestors - Stollen. Stollen is a yeasted cake filled with dried fruits and marzipan, and which is glazed or dusted with icing sugar as the finishing touch.
The recipe for my Stollen came from Eat the Globe - you can find it here. I used raisins, cranberries, glace cherries and dried apricots in my Stollen. Here it is before glazing:
There is a marzipan log encased in the centre of the Stollen, which adds both moisture and flavour.
I decorated my Stollen with water icing, chopped pistachios and cranberries (red and green for Christmas):
The wee Christmas decoration posing with my Stollen came from the Scandanavian Christmas Bazaar that I attended on the weekend.
Here's a peek inside my Stollen - you can clearly see the marzipan in the middle:
Unfortunately I could not attend Cake Club this month because, after I made the Stollen, I ended up in the emergency department of the hospital and had to have a surgical procedure. This ended all of my plans for what was to be a busy week, but I am grateful that they worked out what was wrong with me and it has been fixed.
What are your Christmas food traditions? Have you ever made or tasted Stollen?
Oh how I wish I had a slice of that right now!
ReplyDeleteI love Stollen and yes with the marzipan in the middle! Sorry to hear about your trip to the Emergency department! :(
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear that you had to go to hospital rather than the cake club - especially as your stollen looks great - but glad you are better. It is my heart's desire to make stollen but still haven't ever done it - I wish it wasn't traditional at such a busy time of year (oh yes the irony!)
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry to hear about your health difficulties - I hope you are on the mend and people have been giving you cake to aid your recovery.
ReplyDeleteI have actually never had stollen! This looks delicious though. The only tradition my family have for Christmas is iced spiced biscuits, a variant on gingerbread.
Your Stollen is beautiful. I am so sorry you had a medical emergency an had to go to the hospital for a procedure. :-( I hope you are getting recuperated nicely now.
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