Recipes for Celebrating the New Year Scottish Style - Black Bun

New Year or Hogmany in Scotland is more important to us Scottish people than Christmas. Traditionally Hogmany runs from noon on December 31 through to noon on January first. However our celebrations may last a day or so longer than that!

Here's a fantastic recipe for a Scottish delicacy which is traditionally served at New Year. It's called Black Bun. No celebration of a Scottish Hogmanay is complete without it.. Black Bun is a spicy fruit cake which is covered with pastry. It is served after midnight to the 'first footers' of the New Year.

'First footers' are the first people to visit your house/party after the clock strikes midnight. These are generally your friends or neighbours. For the best luck the first foot should be a tall dark haired handsome stranger but its probably safer these days to have a tall good looking, dark-haired male friend!

The first-foot is expected to bring suitable gifts to ensure good luck throughout the year. Traditionally these may include, a lump of coal for warmth, salt to bring wealth, or food to ensure the household never goes hungry. The food may include Black Bun.

And the householder/party host in turn gives the first foot some food including their own Black Bun and a Whiskey toddy.

This easy Scottish Black Bun recipe should get your New Year celebrations off to a great start. Any leftover Black Bun can be saved, in true Scottish style, and served as a treat for us Scots for our Burns Night Celebrations on Burn's Night on 25 January. Black Bun will also keep for up to six months in an airtight container.

Tips for making a Successful Black Bun

The secret to making a successful Black Bun is to soak the dried fruit overnight in alcohol. The cake will be even better if you leave the fruit to soak for a couple of days.

This is a three stage recipe. It is easy to make provide you follow the stages as follows:

First - Soak the fruit

Second - A day or so later make the pastry

Third - Make the black bun fruit filling

You will need a nine inch square cake tin for this recipe.

Ingredients

Pastry

3 Cups plain flour

6 oz butter

Pinch salt

One teaspoon baking powder

Little water

Fruit mixture

One pound currants

Onepound raisins

One pound sultanas

4 oz dried cranberries

60 ml Scotch Whiskey (For authenticity the whiskey must be the genuine article manufactured in Scotland) You can substitute the whiskey with brandy if you wish, or do 30 ml whisky and 30 ml brandy

Cake Mixture

4 oz butter (softened)

2 oz sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup plain flour

2 oz ground almonds

Half teaspoon of baking soda

Half teaspoon of cream of tartar

Pinch salt

Half teaspoon ground black pepper

One teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1 teaspoon ginger

(plus fruit mixture above)

Method

Stage One - Soak the fruit

A day or so before put all the fruit into a large bowl. Add Scottish Whisky ( or brandy ) and stir!!! Cover and leave overnight or until you are ready to make the cake.

N.B.

Keep this mixture out of the reach of children or you will have very tipsy

kids and a much smaller cake!

Stage two - Make the pastry

Rub the butter into the flour and salt and then mix in enough cold water to make a stiff dough. The pastry is going to line the baking tin so it needs to be stiff. Roll out the pastry and cut into six pieces, using the bottom, top and four sides of the tin as a rough guide.

Ensure there is enough pastry to overlap the sides and top.

Press the bottom and four side pieces into the tin, pressing the overlaps to seal the pastry shell.

Using a skewer prick the pastry at the bottom of the tin.

Put the pastry filled baking tin into the fridge to chill.

Wrap the last piece of pastry the top square in plastic wrap and put to one side.

Stage Three - Make the Cake

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a food processor or electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in eggs. Don't worry if the mixture curdles.

Add flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar.

Add ground almonds and spices. Mix well

By hand add the fruit. Mix until well combined. The mixture should be quite stiff.

Remove the chilled pastry case from the fridge.

Spoon the cake mixture into the chilled pastry case. Press down the cake mixture so that it fills the pastry case completely.

Brush the edges of the pastry with a little beaten egg. Remove your last piece of pastry from the fridge. Roll it out and cover the top of the black bun. Trim the excess pastry and crimp the edges to seal.

Brush the top of the pastry with a little milk.

Using a skewer prick the pastry top all over. This holes will let the steam out and stop the pastry from cracking.

Put your black bun in the centre of a preheated oven. Bake for 3 hours. Check the black bun after it has baked for 2 and a half hours. It should smell delicious at this point! Cover the black bun with foil if the pastry is getting too brown and continue to cook until the 3 hours are up.

Remove the Black Bun from the oven. Cool for two hours before removing your black bun from the cake tin. Do this carefully so that the pastry doesn't crack.

On New Year's Eve cut the Black Bun into thin slices. It is very rich! For good luck serve the first piece of cake to your 'first foot'

And once you've celebrated New Year in traditional Scottish style you'll realise that there simply is no other way to bring in the New Year, irrespective of whether or not you've got Scottish ancestors!