A while ago, when I was visiting my parents, my mother recreated a potent and delicious cocktail often made by Kathleen, her mother-in-law, often enough anyway not to require being written down.
My parents remember it as gin, dry vermouth, and sweet vermouth, in proportions of 3:2:1 with a dash of lime juice cordial.
Gin from Ballarat, sweet and dry vermouth, lime juice cordial from Adelaide, South AustraliaServed only in small glasses from a decanter
In the late nineteenth century a martini was made with equal proportions of gin and vermouth, for example an 1888 Johnson’s Bartenders’ Manual listed a recipe for a “Martini Cocktail” that consisted in part of half a wine glass of Old Tom gin and a half a wine glass of vermouth. By the 1920s this had become two parts gin to one part vermouth. Kathleen’s cocktail was made in the earlier proportions. Today the less vermouth, the drier the Martini.
A so-called “Perfect” cocktail is a drink that includes equal parts of sweet and dry vermouth, so a Perfect Martini is a variant of the classic Martini which adds sweet vermouth to the original cocktail’s gin and dry vermouth.
Kathleen’s cocktail was similar, with a slight variation on the proportions of the sweet and dry vermouths.
My maternal grandparents were German, so perhaps not surprisingly our family Christmas traditions were conducted along German lines. On Nikolaustag, celebrated on 6 December, we were given some little gifts. These appeared miraculously in a pair of your shoes, which you’d left outside your door on going to bed the night before. Naughty children were told that their shoes would contain only a lump of coal. We opened our larger presents on Christmas Eve, Weihnachtsabend, not on Christmas Day.
The meal we ate on Christmas Eve after attending a Christmas Eve carol service and opening presents, was usually cold but had taken on an Australian twist. We would have smoked salmon, cold turkey, ham, and salads. These days we also have prawns. We finished the meal with a pudding, which was definitely an Australian rather than a German tradition.
I don’t remember my grandmother cooking the pudding but I do remember her other Christmas cooking including pfefferkuchen, s-kuchen and stollen. There was lots of Christmas food throughout the month of December.
When serving the pudding on Christmas Eve I do remember that once my grandmother was so liberal with the brandy for the flambé that it seemed the blue flames would never stop. One year she made an ice-cream pudding. I’m not sure whether this was quite properly German or even Australian, we only ever had this once.
I do like rich fruit-and-suet pudding served with brandy butter. In 1985, the year after I was married, I took part in a Christmas-cooking course presented by an English Cordon Bleu instructor. One of the dishes she demonstrated was a Christmas pudding made with suet, and I’ve been making it every Christmas since, for thirty-five years.
Advertising (1985, September 22). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995), p. 12. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128256902 The teacher was Julia Wilkins who had given an interview to The Canberra Times in September: The Good Times – Cordon bleu chef loves teaching (1985, September 19). The Canberra Times, p. 8 (a supplement to The Canberra Times). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128256035
This afternoon my son Peter and I made this year’s pudding, two actually. We had soaked the dried fruit in brandy for a week first.
The recipe is very reliable and the puddings are always delicious.
grating nutmeg
mix
into pudding basin
cover with greaseproof paper
boil
the recipe sheet handed out in 1985 and used every year since
2020 pudding2005 pudding with a summer pudding as well
2003 flaming pudding
2003 flames
2006 pudding
2010 flaming pudding
Puddings of the past, the blue flames are tricky to photograph
Today I finally found my copy of “Backen Macht Freude!” (Baking makes Joy!). It once belonged to my grandmother. It is a well-worn book and the binding is held together with sticky tape. I couldn’t read the spine, so it was hard to find on my bookshelves. From the cover, it appears to be one of the original edition, first published in 1930. I can’t find Schwarzwalder kirschtorte in the index but I have noticed Frankfurter Kranz and Sachertorte as well as Obsttorte (fruit tart). “Backen Macht Freude!” is printed in Blackletter (Gothic) script, no longer commonly used.
I didn’t actually call my grandmother Charlotte Boltz née Manock (1912-1988) Oma, Grandma in German, when I was young. Although she was from Germany, to me she was just Grandma. However, my cousins called her Oma and my children know of her as Oma, distinguishing her from the many other Grandmas in the family.
My grandmother used to bake wonderful cakes, many of them from recipes in this book by the Dr Oetker company. I particularly remember her baking Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, Black Forest cherry cake.
My mother’s copy of Dr Oetker’s cookbook Backen macht Freude, (Cooking with joy). It probably dates from the early 1950s. It cost DM1.80. The Deutschmark was introduced in 1948.
The recipe for Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte page 104. (click on image to enlarge)
The recipe continued on page 105.
The recipe calls for a biscuit base, then a sponge. The cherries are sour cherries.
I didn’t actually call my grandmother Charlotte Boltz née Manock (1912-1988) Oma, Grandma in German, when I was young. Although she was from Germany, to me she was just Grandma. However, my cousins called her Oma and my children know of her as Oma, distinguishing her from the many other Grandmas in the family.
My grandmother used to bake wonderful cakes, many of them from recipes in this book by the Dr Oetker company. I particularly remember her baking Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, Black Forest cherry cake.
My mother’s copy of Dr Oetker’s cookbook Backen macht Freude, (Cooking with joy). It probably dates from the early 1950s. It cost DM1.80. The Deutschmark was introduced in 1948.
The recipe for Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte page 104.
The recipe continued on page 105.
The recipe calls for a biscuit base, then a sponge. The cherries are sour cherries.
There were sour cherry trees at the bottom of my grandparent’s garden. We would pick them each year around Christmas tree. Grandma bottled them. There were always cherries bottled and stored for cake making.
Some of my grandmother’s cakes for a birthday in May 1985, quite probably my grandmother’s birthday. The cake on the left hand side is Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. The other cake is a chocolate and almond cake. My grandmother was very fond of lily of the valley on the right hand side of the photo.
Yesterday I baked a cake from Dr Oetker’s recipe. I was pleased with the result. The taste takes me back to my childhood. The cake is very light, not too chocolately and the sour cherries are beautifully tangy.
Baking the cake
Making the biscuit base. It seemed very dry despite the egg white but it did come together after being chilled.
the biscuit mixture is chilled and rested
pressed into the base of the springform tin
my baked biscuit base fitted perfectly onto my cake plate
Baking the sponge
the egg yolks are beaten with a little warm water til they are pale and creamy
egg whites are beaten separately
fold egg whites in – I do it a third at a time
add sifted dry ingredients
and fold in gently
the baked sponge
upside down cooling – I am pleased with the texture
The filling
Assembling the cake
The finished product
Essential ingredients
I felt fortunate to be able to buy in Ballarat both sour cherries and Kirschwasser from the Schwarzwald
Anne's Family History 