Celebrating Xmas with local flavours

Pushpesh Pant

Man doesn’t live by bread alone, and not everyone celebrates X-mas with rich plum pudding or plum cake! What we share with our readers this time is a mouth-watering gift from Shipra Misra, an exceptional researcher and chronicler of regional and sub-regional variations. Her father is a Punjabi and her mother is from Sindh. She is married to an Odiya. So, she is uniquely equipped to undertake this task.

In Goa, Baath or Baathika is the traditional dish. It is made of suji (semolina), along with fresh grated coconut and flavoured with aromatic spices. Traditionally, this cake was baked at homes in a stove-top clay-oven with a lid that had a depression on which live coal was put on top.

Kerala takes pride in the creation of a legendary baker from Thalassery who in 1883 used toddy to make it. Since then, the recipe has evolved, with each house having its own recipe, guarded with life and an intrinsic part of each family.

The dry fruit soak needs to be prepared well in advance but if you haven’t been able to do so, you can use rum-soaked dried fruits available in market! It’s the alcohol that works the magic.

Kerala Christmas cake

Ingredients

• Black raisins 100 gm
• Black currant 50 gm
• Golden raisins 60 gm
• Seedless dates 100 gm
• Malta orange with rind 50 gm
• A mix of almonds, cashews, walnuts & pistachios 200 gm
• Cinnamon stick (3-inch long) 1
• Cloves 10
• Dried ginger powder 1 tbsp
• Maida/cake flour 250 gm
• Powdered sugar 1½ cup
• Baking powder 1¼ tsp
• Baking soda ½ tsp
• Butter 250 gm
• Salt ¼ tsp
• Eggs 4
• Vanilla essence 2 tsp
• Clove powder ¼ tsp
• Cardamom powder ¼ tsp
• Cinnamon powder ½ tsp
• Nutmeg (powdered) Half
• For treacle
• Granulated sugar 1 cup
• Water ½ cup

Preparing the treacle

• Take sugar in a heavy bottom saucepan and melt it at a very low flame. Don’t stir the sugar and let it caramelise. When the sugar starts bubbling, stir once gently. Add a tablespoon of water. The colour of sugar will slowly turn brown, and then dark brown. Remove the pan off the heat. Gently add the rest of the water, one spoon at a time. Stir well.

Preparing the soak

• Wash raisins, dates, black currants, black raisins and nuts. Drain and chop into small pieces. Keep aside.
• Wash malta orange. Put it in a pan and cover with water. Boil until the malta becomes soft and the fork comes out clean. This will take about an hour. Once cooked, let it cool. Remove peel of half of the malta and cut it into thin slices. Keep aside.
• Remove pips and seeds and blitz in a grinder the rest of the malta with one tbsp of brown sugar. Take only 2 tbsp of this purée for the cake. Store the rest in a glass jar in the fridge.
• Take a heavy bottom pan. Add nuts, dry fruits, orange peel and boiled malta paste, cinnamon stick and cloves. Add 100 ml rum and cook on slow fire for two minutes. Stir constantly. Don’t leave this unattended as alcohol can catch fire. Add dry ginger powder. Let it cool.
• Transfer into a glass jar and top it with the alcohol. Close it tightly. Give the bottle a nice shake and set aside for at least three days. When you plan to bake, drain the excess rum which will be later used for basking. Remove cinnamon and cloves.

Baking the cake

• Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC and line a 9-inch pan with baking paper. Double-line the sides and cut the parchment paper in such a way that it is at least 2 inches above the sides of the pan. If pan is smaller, divide the batter into two.
• Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and sieve it twice.
• With a slotted spoon, separate the egg whites from the yolks. Beat the egg whites till they form soft peaks.
• In the bowl, combine sugar and butter and cream till the mix is little light. Now add the egg yolks, vanilla and spices.
• Fold in the mixture gently. Slowly fold the cooled down treacle.
• Gently fold in egg-butter mixture to the flour mixture. Similarly, add the egg whites. Gently fold in the soaked fruits, dusted with a tablespoon of flour.
• Pour the batter into the pan. Keep your cake in centre rack. Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If you feel the top of the cake is heating fast, cover it with an aluminium foil.
• Don’t open the oven door for the first 10 minutes. Poke the cake with wooden skewers and brush it with drained rum liquid.
• Once the cake is at room temperature, turn it upside down on the cake plate and cut into slices. Tastes best flamed!