HAPPY CHRISTMAS

FROM ALL AT GLENVIEW LODGE

Christmas time in Ireland

The Christmas fruit cake has been enjoyed at Glenview Lodge for many generations. This delicious moist fruit cake topped with almond and finished with a wonderful covering of white icing. The Christmas cake has been made in farmhouses and cottages throughout the County Limerick for years and years gone by just as it is today.

Buying the ingredients was the very first sign of Christmas. In late October the ingredients would be bought in Broadford village including the raisings, cherries, mixed peel, chopped almond, ground almonds, butter, lemon, oranges, nutmeg, flour and sugar not forgetting the Irish Whiskey.

The baking tin was lined with a double grease proof paper. Eggs were brought in from the henhouse. The fruit was soaked overnight in the whiskey and the mixture prepared the following morning and transferred to the prepared tin. The cake was then wrapped in two layers of brown paper to protect in for the long bake. When the cake was baked more whiskey was poured over the cake.

About 2 weeks before Christmas the cake was smothered with almond icing a couple days after that it was iced with the sparkling white icing.

A couple of days before Christmas the cake was opened at Glenview and the first delicious slice was cut. This same process happens each year.

On Christmas Eve a slice is left out for Santa Clause which he always enjoys.

The Irish Christmas fruit cake is a tradition worth preserving.

Happy Christmas

From Monica and Seán at Glenview Lodge