Homemade holidays: 12 days of vintage sweets Posted: Last Modified: Updates

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/12/2022 (1371 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To cap off the Free Press’s anniversary year, we’re plumbing the archives for holiday recipes of yore. Follow along until Dec. 23 for a sampling of the sweet, strange and trendy desserts to grace our pages and your tables over the last 150 years.

 

Mulled apple juice delivers holiday cheer

Mulled apple juice delivers holiday cheer

Posted:

Cinnamon, cloves and warm apples — throw a pot of this mulled apple juice on the stove and your home will be smelling like holiday cheer in no time.

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Divinity fudge answers prayers for those with a sweet tooth

This marshmallowy fudge recipe from 1956 is nice to look at, but a mess to make. (Photo by Eva Wasney)

Posted:

Divinity fudge? More like a sticky, marshmallowy nightmare. I’m not sure the task of cleaning rock hard egg whites and syrup from the beaters of my mixer was worth the pretty, but cloyingly sweet results of this recipe (which I had to make twice because the first batch was too runny to cut).

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Frosty, festive inspiration from 1930s ‘hand freezer’

Eva Wasney / Winnipeg Free Press Wondering what to serve for holiday dessert? Mrs. Madeline Day’s advice, straight from 1936, is the ‘very popular choice, ice cream.’

Posted:

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Christmas ice cream. No? Well, then I’d like to take this opportunity to push for the revival of the ice cream-as-holiday-dessert trend of the 1930s.

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Day 4: Cranberry meringue pie

Eva Wasney / Winnipeg Free Press This cranberry meringue pie recipe was published in 1922.

Posted:

Cranberry propaganda was having a heyday 100 years ago. In 1922, the pages of the Free Press were littered with advertisements for the tart red berries, with promotions ramping up, understandably, around the holiday season.

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Day 3: Cocoanut caramels deliver a sweet and simple tropical treat

This Cocoanut Caramels recipe ran during the holidays in 1909. (Eva Wasney / Winnipeg Free Press)

Posted:

With lightly browned sugar, lemon extract and coconut — or rather cocoanut, as per the original recipe — these sweet and simple treats are decidedly tropical.

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Day 2: Plum pudding recipe indulges in old-fashioned passion for dried fruit

Eva Wasney/Winnipeg Free Press This plum pudding recipe published in the Free Press in 1893 was billed as the ‘genuine old English article.’

Posted:

For the first several decades of the Free Press’s existence, holiday recipes were decked with all manner of dried fruits and booze. If it wasn’t fruitcake, it was plum pudding.

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Day 1: Fruitcake recipe fit for a queen

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Murrell family fruitcake has served as a Christmas and wedding tradition over the years.

Posted:

Have you heard the one about monkey soup? How about sailing through the Canary Islands? Or the time a family member swiped the recipe for Queen Victoria’s wedding cake from the castle kitchen?

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To see our archive of previous years of holiday baking click here.

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Eva Wasney / Winnipeg Free Press This recipe for Irmie’s Honey Spice Drops was published in 1975 by Free Press food writer Evelyn Larson.
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Updated on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 7:50 AM CST: Adds cranberry meringue pie recipes

Updated on Thursday, December 15, 2022 8:00 AM CST: Adds new recipe

Updated on Sunday, December 18, 2022 9:49 AM CST: Adds new recipe

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Tijana Martin / The Canadian PressNiigaan Sinclair, of the Winnipeg Free Press, accepts the award for his column during the National Newspaper Awards in Toronto on Friday, May 3, 2019.

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Winnipeg Free Press Indigenous writer Niigaan Sinclair has been named Canada’s best columnist, winning a distinguished National Newspaper Award, which was presented at a gala in Toronto Friday evening.

Sinclair, who is Anishinaabe, joined the Free Press as a regular columnist in June 2018. Sinclair, who is on sabbatical from his job as an associate professor at the University of Manitoba, writes about Indigenous issues.

In accepting the award, Sinclair said it was his childhood dream to write for the Free Press. He said Winnipeg is the centre of reconciliation in Canada, calling it “the most imperfect city, but the most perfect.”

“I’m honoured to receive the National Newspaper Award for column writing, the same award Richard Wagamese received in 1990. It’s a testament to the incredible support and belief the Free Press has in me, and also how critically important the conversations and issues in Winnipeg are for the national stage.”

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Magnific ‘There’s a ton of government bonds coming out because the U.S. has to finance itself, but all of the (AI) hyperscalers are tapping the U.S. market for funding at the same time,’ says Konstantin Boehmer of Mackenzie Investments.

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Scott Christopher Alcorn, 50, has pleaded guilty to one count each of child luring, sexual interference and possession of child sexual abuse material.

Alcorn was still on parole for child sex offences at the time of his April 2025 arrest, having been convicted four years earlier of providing a 16-year-old girl a bottle of alcohol in exchange for sex.

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Canada overlooks scores of workers

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Canada has a labour shortage and a labour surplus at the same time. Canada’s labour force shortages are no longer a temporary challenge. Across the country, “help wanted” signs are everywhere.

A report this spring by RBC Economics said the situation will be exacerbated by retirements and changes in immigration policy.

Employers across the country say they can’t find enough workers. There is a solution, however, that continues to be overlooked. Roughly three-quarters of working-age Canadians with an intellectual disability or autism remain unemployed or underemployed despite being ready, willing and able to work. These two realities should not exist side by side.

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Laura Rance-Unger Tall waterhemp, in a wheat field west of Carman, is a highly invasive weed whose seeds are easily spread during harvest.

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There’s a threat lurking on the edge of Manitoba farmers’ fields this fall that’s even scarier than the escalating trade war with their biggest customer.

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