Christmas pudding

The tradition of the Christmas pudding is HUGE here in Australia! I would best describe it as a "fruitcake" and to be honest, I was quite nervous to try it. It blew my expectations out of the water!!! I LOVED it! It was so good! Of course, Dina's mom is an excellent cook and this is something that she basically works on for a full year - let's just say, it was VERY home made!! As in the previous post, you saw it hanging from the ceiling. This part of the process is letting all the flavors settle. Basically, after the previous Christmas, she begins to soak the fruit in brandy for the next Christmas. I think (if I remember correctly) she makes it at least 4 -6 weeks in advance and then wraps it in the cloth. Then, about an hour or so before we eat it, she boils it. She also hides several sixpence inside the cake, so you have to be careful when eating it! If you get a sixpence it's supposed to "bring good luck for the next year". She likes to keep her sixpence for the next year, so she actually handed out money to those that found one!! I found one in mine - I was pretty excited!! They also eat it with ice cream and you can pour custard over the top. Again, not normally my style, but I would SOOO eat hers again!!!!Here's my piece with the sixpence sticking out - yeah!! (I'm sure they thought I was very weird taking pictures of the cake - Ha!)
My sixpence!
before eating it, with custard poured over it.
Josh had some ice cream on his
The Christmas Pudding - before it was cut into.