Christmas food traditions across Britain are wonderfully varied, deeply local, and sometimes a little surprising.
While most of us are familiar with mince pies, Christmas pudding, and roast turkey, Wales has its own rich culinary heritage, including one of the most unusual festive dishes you may never have heard of: Cacen Waed Gwyddau, or Goose Blood Cake or tart.
This historic Welsh delicacy may sound startling to modern ears, but it tells an important story about thrift, seasonality, and how Christmas was once celebrated in rural communities.
What Is Cacen Waed Gwyddau?
Cacen Waed Gwyddau literally translates as “goose blood cake”. It is traditionally a baked tart or cake made using goose blood, combined with ingredients such as:
Goose blood
Suet or dripping
Flour or breadcrumbs
Onions
Herbs and spices
Sometimes dried fruit or oats
The result was a dense, savoury bake, more akin to a pudding or tart than a modern cake, designed to make use of every part of the goose.
Why Goose Blood at Christmas?
Before supermarkets, refrigeration, and global food supply chains, Christmas was the time when livestock was slaughtered for winter. In many Welsh households, the Christmas goose was the centrepiece of the festive meal long before turkey became fashionable.
Waste was not an option.
Using goose blood was practical, economical, and deeply ingrained in rural life. Blood provided richness, protein, and binding, much like it does in black pudding, and allowed families to stretch scarce resources further during the long winter months.
Cacen Waed Gwyddau was often made around Christmas or New Year, when geese were prepared, making it a seasonal dish rather than an everyday one.
A Dish Rooted in Respect and Resourcefulness
While modern tastes may recoil at the idea, dishes like Goose Blood Cake speak to a time when:
Animals were raised locally
Food was seasonal and precious
Nothing edible was wasted
Cooking was guided by necessity, not novelty
In that sense, Cacen Waed Gwyddau sits comfortably alongside other traditional British blood dishes such as black pudding, faggots, and savoury puddings.
This was not about shock value, it was about survival, respect for livestock, and feeding families through harsh winters.
Was It Sweet or Savoury?
Most historical references suggest Cacen Waed Gwyddau was savoury, often flavoured with onion and herbs, though some regional or family variations may have leaned towards a lightly spiced, enriched pudding.
Recipes were rarely written down. Like many traditional Welsh dishes, it was passed from generation to generation by memory and method rather than precise measurements.
Does Anyone Still Eat It Today?
Cacen Waed Gwyddau is now extremely rare, and you are unlikely to find it on modern Christmas tables — or in shops.
However, it occasionally appears in:
Food history discussions
Welsh cultural heritage events
Academic or museum references
Experimental heritage cookery
Its value today lies less in widespread consumption and more in what it teaches us about how Christmas was once lived and cooked.
Christmas Traditions Aren’t Always Pretty... But They Are Honest
At That’s Christmas 365, we often celebrate cosy, comforting traditions, but it’s also important to remember that Christmas history includes hardship, ingenuity, and resilience. And it is a nod to the Welsh ancestors of both my wife and myself who, as coming from Welsh farming stock, could well have made and eaten Cacen Waed Gwyddau at Christmastime.
Cacen Waed Gwyddau reminds us that festive food was once about:
Making the most of what you had
Feeding large families affordably
Preparing for winter survival
Honouring animals by wasting nothing
It may not be a dish most of us would recreate today, but it deserves its place in the rich tapestry of Welsh Christmas traditions.
A Taste of Christmas Past
So next time you sit down to a beautifully plated Christmas dinner, spare a thought for the generations who made do with far less, and still found ways to mark the season with care, tradition, and communal meals.
Cacen Waed Gwyddau may be a relic of the past, but it tells a powerful story of Christmas in Wales — one rooted in history, honesty, and respect.
