Name: Twelfth cake
Yield: For 8-12 people
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: ¼ tsp grated nutmeg; white fondant, for decorating; 65 g (2¼ oz) butter, at room temperature, cubed; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; apricot jam, for brushing; flour, for dusting; butter, for greasing; 1 egg; 300 g (10½ oz) currants; ¼ tsp ground mace; rolled marzipan, for decorating; 200 ml (7 fl oz) lukewarm milk; 15 g (½ oz) dried yeast; 450 g (1 lb) plain (all-purpose) flour; 80 g (2¾ oz) raw (demerara) sugar; 1 tsp ground cloves

Preparation info

For
8-12
people

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Oats in the North, Wheat from the South

By Regula Ysewijn

Published 2020

About

From the mid-18th century to the end of the 19th century, Twelfth cakes were very popular, but they had been mentioned in poems and other literature more than a century earlier. The cake was traditionally baked on 5 January for the celebration of Revelation or – as the name suggests – the twelfth night after Christmas.

The cake was decadently decorated with elaborate scenes of feasting, with little people and filigree made of a white glaze, which was shaped into intricately carved w