Christmas Pudding

Clean and prepare the fruit. Stone the muscat raisins; wash the currants and sultanas; mince or chop the prunes and the candied peel very finely. Peel and grate the apples and add to the mix. Mix the spices into the flour. Add the flour, suet and other ingredients to the mix. Stir until smooth and well mixed. Add 1/4 of the bottle of rum and stir until it is absorbed. Put away in a cool place, covered with a cloth. Each day, add a bit more rum and stir until absorbed. Time the additions of rum so that the last of it goes in, with ceremony, on Christmas Eve. Just before cooking, beat up the eggs and add to the mix. If it is too hard to stir, add some Guinness (or milk!). Put into a buttered, floured pudding basin. Cover with an inverted saucer or plate and tie a cloth over the top. (Or tie into a pudding cloth which has been heavily buttered and floured.) Steam or simmer very slowly for 6 hours. Watch that the pan does not run out of water. To serve, heat the 1/4 cup of rum and, just before serving, pour the rum over the pudding and serve flaming, averting the head so that the pudding is the only thing alight. Serve with Sunshine Sauce Sunshine Sauce 2 eggs - separated 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 pint whipping cream 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional) Beat the egg yolks with 1/4 cup of the sugar until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture forms a slowly dissolving ribbon when it drips back from the beater. Beat the egg whites until stiff and then add the sugar slowly (as for meringues). Fold the egg yolk mixture into the egg white mixture. Whip the cream and when stiff, fold it into the egg mixture. Flavour with vanilla if you like, but it is good on its own, especially with Christmas Pudding.