Mixing it right

Ushering in Christmas spirit, city’s patisserie chefs share history, varieties and steps involved in making an X-mas cake

With Christmas, the festival of feasting and joy being just a month away, the prep work for traditional cakes — the most special of all Xmas goodies has already begun. While the foodies look forward to gorging on some mouthwatering Christmas cakes, the patisserie chefs tell us about the meticulous steps involved in baking the perfect cake.

The initial step while baking a cake is the mixing process, formally called the “Cake-mixing ceremony” that has quickly metamorphosed to a close affair with family and friends sitting together and soaking dry fruits in wine, brandy or rum in hopes that the rich and sweet flavour from all the ingredients fill their Christmas with happiness.

The history of the cake-mixing ceremony dates back to the 17th century. During the harvest season, lots of fruits and nuts were harvested and prepared to be added to a traditional plum cake. Chef Santosh Reddy of Radisson Blu MBD Hotel, Noida puts forth, “Baking a Christmas cake is an English tradition that began with making plum porridge on Christmas Eve. People used to line their stomachs with porridge after a day of fasting. Gradually dried fruits, spices and honey were added to the porridge mixture, and eventually it turned into a Christmas pudding. In the 16th century, oatmeal was removed from the original recipe and butter wheat flour and eggs were added instead. These ingredients helped in holding the mixture together and in what resulted was a boiled plum cake. Richer families that had ovens began making fruit cakes with marzipan, an almond sugar paste for Easter. For Christmas, they made a similar cake using seasonal dried fruits and spices that represented the exotic eastern spices brought by the Wise Men. This cake became to be known as ‘the Christmas cake’.”

Cake mixing, also a wonderful bonding exercise heralds the festive season of Christmas and captures the spirit of the New Year. Chef Sandeep Pawar of Metropolitan Hotel and Spa, says, “Cake mixing is a great bonding exercise where all friends and families come together to actively participate in the ritual. They marinate the dried fruits to be used in the cake by soaking them in a liquor of their choice.” Steps and rituals involved: The greater the duration of soaking, the better and the richer is the end product, suggests chef Pawar and adds, “As the tradition goes, in between the cake mix, a coin is added to the entire mixture and over the period it darkens and gets lost in the batter. But after the cake is baked and who-so-ever finds the coin is considered to be the blessed one.” All Christmas cakes are made almost a month in advance. Chef Santosh says, “Many make them (cakes) in November, keeping the cake upside down in an airtight container. A small amount of brandy, sherry or whisky is poured into the holes in the cake every week until Christmas. This process is called ‘feeding’ the cake.”

Varieties of Christmas cakes: The recipes and the ingredients may vary for Christmas cakes but generally they are variations of the classic fruit cake. “They can be light, dark, moist, dry, heavy, spongy, leavened, unleavened, etc. They are made in many different shapes with frosting, glazing, dusting, too. One of the popular Christmas cakes is the traditional Scottish Christmas cake, also known as the Whisky dundee, which is a light crumbly cake with currants, raisins, cherries and Scotch whisky. Apple creme cake and mincemeat cake are other interesting examples of the X-mas specials,” says chef Santosh.

Christmas Bûche, also known as Yule log is another traditional French dessert much appreciated during Christmas time reveals chef Cédric Houzé, L’Opéra. He concludes, “Their shape symbolises the logs used as firewood to stay warm during the winter season. Made with a few loved ingredients from the season such as chestnuts, cinnamon, coffee, chocolate and decorated in Christmas colours they are delightful to the eye and to the palate.”

Traditional Christmas cake Ingredients Plain flour 225 gm Butter 200 gm Dark brown sugar 200 gm Eggs, lightly beaten 4 Marzipan 200 gm Mixed dried fruits 800 gm Chopped and mixed peel of lemon and orange 90 gm Cherries, halved 150 gm Blanched almonds 90 gm Black treacle or uncrystallised syrup 2 tbsp Marmalade 1tbsp Vanilla extract tsp Brandy to taste Apricot jam tbsp, warm Salt tsp Mixed spices tsp Ground cinnamon tsp

Method Heat an oven to 150°C. Grease a 20 cm round cake tin and line the bottom and sides with baking parchment paper.Sift flour, salt, mixed spices and cinnamon into a large bowl. Cream the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add treacle, marmalade and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Mix the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour mixture with each egg. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix thoroughly. Add dried fruits, mixed peel, glace cherries and almonds. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, making it slightly hollow in the centre. Bake for three hours and then test with a skewer. If the skewer does not come out clean, bake for another hour testing every 20 minutes until the skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for 15 minutes. Make a few holes in the cake with a skewer and pour over 3-4 tablespoons of brandy. Let the brandy soak into the cake. Store the cake wrapped up in a foil in an airtight container. To decorate the cake, place it on a foil board or a cake plate. Dust your hands and the work surface with a little icing sugar and knead the marzipan until soft. Roll out half the marzipan to fit the top of the cake and roll out the rest in strips to fit around the sides of the cake. Brush the cake all over with warmed apricot jam and then place the marzipan on top and around the cake. Cover the cake with a clean tea towel and then leave in a cool place for at least one day. Voila, enjoy!

Recipe courtesy: chef Arzooman Irani, Vivanta by Taj