Best-ever Christmas cake? Ask your mother-in-law, says Nadia Lim.
How soon is too soon and how late is too late? Christmas cake baking season is nigh and the kitchen timer is ticking. Plus, a reader recipe poll: classic or contemporary? Store-bought or homemade?
Nigella Lawson says three months out. The Edmonds Cookery Book website will stretch to Labour Weekend. And Nadia Lim?
“Hold my spatula ...”
That is not a real quote. But the world’s southernmost domestic goddess does have some very good news for anybody who wasn’t planning to deck the halls (or bake a Christmas cake) until December.
“I’m not even thinking of Christmas,” said Lim from her Central Otago farm kitchen. “No way. Hell no. I’m just trying to get through the school holidays. I am definitely not thinking about Christmas cakes three months in advance.
“My cake would be perfect for anyone who’s like, oh, damn, it’s Christmas next week.”
Today marks exactly three months until the big day. Ninety sleeps until Santa drops down your chimney and/or you remember you should have defrosted the turkey yesterday and made your Christmas cake back in September.
Advice from Ask Nigella, an online forum from the British food writer and television cook, says that, while opinions on the maturing of Christmas cakes vary, “for the rich fruit type ... we would suggest making them three months ahead”.
New Zealand’s baking bible offers a little more leeway. The rich Christmas cake recipe on The Edmonds Cookery Book website comes with this caveat: “Just remember to start your cake by Labour Day in order for the flavours to fully develop.”
Search for Christmas cake recipes in Nadia’s Farm Kitchen, the latest book from Lim (celebrity chef, entrepreneur, food writer and television personality) and stop at her “mid-winter boozy fruitcake”. The fruit is pre-soaked in alcohol (or orange juice) and the cake is decorated with icing sugar-stencilled stars, but that’s where festive affinities end.
“It’s lighter than a traditional cake ... If I made it now, would I be able to serve it on Christmas? We’re still three months away. I don’t think I’ve ever tested it out that long, because it doesn’t last that long! Mine’s more for if you’re not a super-organised person ...”
Growing up, Lim’s family was not big on Christmas cakes with their traditional sultana-currant-raisin-mixed peel flavour profile.
“And I’m not a big fan of glacé cherries. Hate them. I can’t stand them,” she says. “When it comes to dried fruit, I’m going to choose tropical. Mango and pineapple, but I also love apricots. Stuff with a bit of tang.”
Her mid-winter boozy fruit cake can, accordingly, contain all of the above, along with papaya, figs and cranberries.
But, Lim confesses, “My mother-in-law Virginia makes the best Christmas cakes. They’re amazing. It’s the best Christmas cake I’ve definitely ever tried ... I’ve got some in the freezer now. It lasts us almost the whole year, because we just have tiny little slivers and it’s huge ... she really does make the Rolls-Royce of Christmas cakes.”
Dear Reader, obviously we phoned Lim’s mother-in-law immediately.
Virginia Bagrie was 23 when she baked her first Christmas cake. She might have started earlier, she said, but she was working alongside husband John to buy the family farm, and then she had her first child in the middle of lambing season.
“I was a bit busy.”
She used a recipe she found in a cookery book compiled by the Women’s Division of Federated Farmers, but “I added a few things to it”. More than four decades later, the former sheep and grain farmer hasn’t missed a cake-baking year. Sample ingredients? Tips and tricks?
Instructions for a recipe titled “Virginia Bagrie Xmas Cake Secret Recipe Made With Love And A Lot Of Alcohol” duly arrive via email.
“Fruit needs to soak overnight,” writes Bagrie. “Half a cup of cognac, half a cup of sherry, half a cup of Grand Marnier, half a cup of Cointreau and half a cup of brandy. You can just use brandy and sherry. If this is too expensive, just go with two cups of sherry (medium, as it’s not too sweet).”
It is a heavy-duty mix that includes one kilogram of dried fruit, three cups of nuts (including macadamias), 10 eggs and stirring assistance from husband John. Once cooked, the cake gets an extra slosh of sherry.
“You just drizzle it all around. It does that lovely little sizzle. It’s very rewarding. I love the sound of it, and the cake smells absolutely divine.”
Leave it in the tin overnight to cool, before wrapping it in greaseproof paper and foil and waiting four to six weeks before icing. She turns the cake upside down, brushes the smooth surface with apricot jam or sugar syrup, then “cheats” with store-bought almond icing and finishes with a final layer of (naturally) brandy butter icing.
How does it taste?
“I’m gluten intolerant,” says Bagrie. “So I don’t eat it.”
But, she says, “All my friends go crazy over it. Some of them never eat Christmas cake, but they will eat mine.”
These are cakes made with love and a strong stirring arm: “Part of me goes into them,” she says.
Her annual October bake results in six large cakes; three are wrapped and frozen, ensuring John can eat them year-round.
“I find them very moreish,” he confirms. “You take one bite, and you just carry on.”
Classic or contemporary? Long-keeper or fast-eater? Nadia Lim and mother-in-law Virginia Bagrie have kindly shared their boozy fruitcake recipes with the Herald - but which one would you like us to publish ahead of Christmas cake-baking season? Have your say in our online poll.