Dream Sandwich – the Betty

For this year’s Christmas cake, (Bûche de Noël) I’ve decided to opt for understated and traditional… Hello 1980s Christmas tack. Full blown Christmas nostalgia in cake form. I call this The Betty.

 

My tried and true philosophy is that a cake needs to taste as good as it looks. Otherwise what’s the damn point?! But this cake has me going way off script. So let me revise my philosophy to say a cake needs to taste as good as it looks EXCEPT for nostalgic purposes (not quite as catchy but there you have it). I love a good Bûche de Noël. December in Paris is all about the best pastry chefs and their Bûches. They are perfection. A solid Christmas memory for another time. Today, I’m combining my love of a good Bûche de Noël and rolling it all up (pun intended) with a good amount of late 1980s Christmas nostalgia. The resulting magic is dedicated to my grandmother, the unforgettable Betty Cherry (yes, that’s her actual name and it’s amazing).

December at Betty’s house was magic for my sister and I. Usually, after a game of snakes and ladders she’d created with a texta on the back of a Cornflakes box, we’d gather in her tiny living room next to the cabinet (where she kept the ‘good’ glasses) and watch her put on Bing Crosby’s White Christmas on the record player. Next, the dusty old Christmas tree box would be brought out and that beautiful, balding old tree would be erected. That thing lost more and more tinsel leaves every year – to the point it resembled twigs. I’d carefully bend the branches into shape, preparing it for the magic to come – the decorations.

Betty’s decorations box was a mish mash of collected Christmas ornaments from the 1940s-1980s, the almond lights (always tangled), weird pasta decorations we made for her at preschool and so – much – tinsel. Every decoration was precious to me. My sister and I spent hours decorating the tree with Betty watching on, cup of tea in hand. Then there was the bell. The pink aluminium bell that would be hung from the doorway and, if you pulled the cord, would play very twinkly Christmas carols. Only we were never allowed to pull the cord… because kids break things… making it even more special.

As for the other most important part of Christmas – enter Betty’s Christmas trifle. I’ll be blunt, it wasn’t known for being the tastiest trifle ever made, but it was on the dessert table every year, complete with bright yellow custard, red jelly, tinned peaches and those unmistakable supermarket sponge rolls soaked in cheap sherry. It was a bowl of Christmas right there.

So, this ridiculous cake is all of those things. An ode to my Christmas memories with Betty. Supermarket sponge roll (not carefully crafted cake) covered in Christmas tack. Here’s to you Betty Cherry. Thank you for a childhood filled with beautiful Christmas memories, all the Christmas tack anyone could need and the best Christmas tree I ever did see.