When I previously posted about Christmas cake it was in relation to Jane Eyre. In Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 novel, Jane’s making of a Christmas cake for her newly discovered family, the Rivers, demonstrates both her new wealth and the fact she has found her identity and at last feels she belongs somewhere.
A Christmas cake also occupies a key role in the short story ‘Queenie’ by the Canadian writer Alice Munro – published in the London Review of Books on 30 July 1998. But here, whilst the making of the Christmas cake signals the baker’s financial independence, it also precipitates a nasty episode of domestic violence, presenting a dark side to what is normally a joyful festive occasion.
The story is narrated by Chrissy, the younger step-sister of the protagonist Queenie. Chrissy has arrived in Toronto to visit Queenie who, almost two years beforehand, at the age of eighteen, had eloped with Stan Vorguilla. Stan is a widower and significantly older than Queenie, who met him when she cared for his first wife who was dying.
Chrissy’s delight at seeing Queenie again after two years is tempered by her revulsion at Stan, and her concern as the reality of Queenie’s marriage gradually becomes clear. Whilst Queenie presents a positive front, it quickly transpires that this marriage is underpinned by abuse and the threat of domestic violence.
This reality is revealed as Queenie tells Chrissy a story about events that took place around the previous Christmas. Queenie had just secured herself a job selling tickets at a cinema, ‘and she was really happy then because she had her own money at last and could buy the ingredients for a Christmas cake‘.
Queenie makes the cake, buys a Christmas tree and then organises a party to which she invites their neighbours and the students to whom Stan teaches the piano. The party is a success, with drinking, party games and dancing, and there is so much other food that the cake is barely touched.
A couple of days later Stan asks for a slice of cake, but the cake is nowhere to be found. Accusations and recriminations are hurled at Queenie by her abusive husband, who charges her with being drunk and giving the cake to one of his male students – with whom she had danced at the party. He threatens violence, coming at her ‘with his hand raised‘ and circling her neck with his hands to ‘just for a second cut off her breath‘, and then refusing to speak to her until he forces a false confession out of Queenie.
Queenie subsequently finds the cake, but as she tells Chrissy, she threw it away without telling Stan:
‘I pitched it,’ she said. ‘It was just as good as ever and all that expensive fruit and stuff in it but there was no way I wanted to get that subject brought up again. So I just pitched it out.’
In due course Queenie escapes from the marriage. Whilst Chrissy never finds out who she left with – if anyone – and never hears from her again, she feels convinced that at various times in her life, in many different places, she sees Queenie again. Perhaps the sisterly bond remains intact despite separation and geographical distance.
So, hoping that making a Christmas cake will be a joyous symbol of togetherness and festivity for you, here is a link to my faithful recipe which never lets me down.
