As Santa comes knocking on your door, Christmas is also the time to make your loved ones feel special. On an occasion like this one, nothing beats the excitement that a soft, spongy cake that melts in your mouth brings with it. Amid all trinkets that make your Christmas celebrations vibrant, cakes take center stage during this week-long carnival. Although the traditional Christmas cake takes over a month to prepare, experts in the city have some quick recipes for you, that will leave your guests asking for more.
“We have a special procedure to bake our plum cake. We put all fruits with the brandy and then cook it. After that we mix it with all other ingredients and bake the cake. After that is done, we soak the whole cake again in brandy. This gives that extra brandy taste to the cake which I find delicious,” says Lalita De Goederen of Bagel’s Café.
She further adds that if you want to do it the traditional way, “Start weeks in advance and put all the fruits in a bowl, pour the brandy over it and leave to soak until you are going to bake the cake. The longer the better for the taste.” she says. You should ideally do this three or four weeks in advance.
If you are an ardent cake lover, cook something extraordinary for your family and guests. Which means, you have to go that extra mile to find the essential ingredients to bake that perfect Christmas cake of your choice.
The other choice is a good rum. Adding rum gives your cake a typical traditional flavour, and rest of the procedure remains the same. “Sift the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the baking powder, cocoa, cinnamon and mixed spice. Add the dried fruit, currants, sultanas, glace cherries and nuts. In another mixing bowl cream the sugar and butter together until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time; fold in half the flour and fruit mixture a bit at a time. Mix in the lemon rind and juice and rum/brandy. Stir all together until well-mixed, and follow the procedure of making a cake,” says a chef from Courtyard by Marriott Gurgaon.
Pastry chef Yash Mathur from Marriott further says if you want a proper Christmas flavour in your cake, soak, 50 gm sultanas, almonds, cashewnuts, glazed cherries, black currents, prunes pitted, dried apricot, candied ginger in 200 ml rum, vodka and whisky for over a month.
If you haven’t had the time to soak your dry fruits beforehand, once the cake is made skewer the cake and feed it with a mixture of rum and black tea two or three times before cutting it.
“One can experiment with candied fruits. Earlier traditionally one could get only raisins, peel and glazed cherries but now with a plethora of cadied fruits available, I love to experiment. And of course, the spices-nutmeg, cinnamon and mixed spices make the cake wintery,” says Shveta Bhagat, food expert, Zomato/CEO Cakewalk Lovers.