Macao Christmas Cake

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Every year, as I'm frantically shopping for butter, eggs and sugar a couple of days before Christmas, I promise myself that I'll get organized in advance next time. Finally getting around to living up to my promise, I'm going to make several Macao Christmas Cakes and put them away in rum-soaked cheesecloth a month or so before the big day.

The recipe is from my dear friend, Rosa Carvalho Ross, a chef, cookbook author and owner of the dockside restaurant Scrimshaw way out on the North Fork of Long Island, N.Y. From the former Portuguese colony of Macao, Rosa is as skilled at preparing Cantonese food as she is at the Portuguese and British specialties, which are all part of traditional Macanese cooking.

Obviously a British-influenced recipe, this fruitcake is nothing to joke about -- it's delicious, moist and just rich enough without being cloying. I hope it becomes a tradition in your family too.

A note about aging fruitcake: The original make-ahead cake, a good fruitcake may be kept for years if it's properly wrapped. Give your hands and work surface a good scrub before starting, then brush about 1/3 cup dark rum or brandy all over the cooled fruitcake. Rinse about a yard of new cheesecloth under running hot water, wring it out, and place it in a bowl. Sprinkle the cheesecloth with 1/4 cup of the same spirits used to brush the cake. Without wringing out the cheesecloth, wrap the cake in it. Double wrap in plastic, then do the same with aluminum foil. Keep the fruitcake in a cool, dark place until you intend to serve it. After serving, rewrap as above without adding more spirits to the cheesecloth. If you want to keep the cake for longer than through the holiday season, repeat moistening the cheesecloth and the double-double wrapping.

 

MACAO CHRISTMAS CAKE

Adapted from a recipe by Edris Carvalho

One 10-inch tube cake, about 30 thin slices

8 ounces dark raisins

8 ounces golden raisins

8 ounces dried currants

4 ounces candied orange peel, cut into 1/4-inch dice

4 ounces candied lemon peel, cut into 1/4-inch dice

1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) slivered almonds, coarsely chopped

3 cups all-purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)

2 1/2 whole nutmegs, finely grated

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

6 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup dark rum or Cognac

1/4 cup creme de cacao or other chocolate liqueur

One 16-cup (10-inch) tube or Bundt pan, buttered, sprinkled with dry breadcrumbs and sprayed with vegetable cooking spray

 

1. Set a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees.

2. Toss all the dried and candied fruit and the almonds with 1/4 cup of the flour and set aside.

3. Stir the remaining 2 3/4 cups flour together with the nutmeg and baking powder.

4. Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed with the paddle attachment until light, about 3 or 4 minutes.

5. Beat in a quarter of the flour, followed by 3 of the eggs, one at a time. Stop and scrape the bowl and beater.

6. Repeat step 5.

7. Beat in another quarter of the flour, followed by the rum and creme de cacao. Stop and scrape.

8. Beat in the last of the flour, then remove the bowl from the mixer. Use a large rubber spatula to give a final mixing to the batter and then fold in the fruit and almond mixture.

9. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake until it is firm and a paring knife inserted a couple of inches into the cake midway between the side of the pan and the central tube emerges dry, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

10. Cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes, then unmold and cool completely.

 

If you are serving the cake soon after baking it, double wrap in plastic and store at room temperature. If you are preparing it more than a week in advance, moisten and age it, as described above.

 

Warm Bread and Honey Cake

Among the latest crop of new baking books, the hands-down winner is undoubtedly "Warm Bread and Honey Cake: Home Baking from Around the World," by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra (Interlink Books).

Painstakingly researched and lovingly written, "Warm Bread" deserves a place on the bookshelf of everyone who loves to bake. Exposed to multi-cultural influences at an early age in her native Guyana, Pagrach-Chandra developed both a love of baking and a fascination with investigating the cultural background of the recipes she collected. And though she is a winner of the prestigious Sophie Coe Prize (the Oscars of the food history world) for outstanding research, there is no high-handed academic prose here. She has written in a friendly and informative tone -- like a favorite cousin giving you the background of a family recipe and then accurately describing the steps to a perfect result.

The dizzying assortment of recipes covers everything from Indian breads through Dutch cookies to Chilean cakes. Savory pastries occupy an important place along with traditional sweets, and there is an entire chapter devoted to leaf and thread pastries, including real Turkish baklava, strudel and shredded wheat-style kadayif.

Appetizing photos of many of the recipes are styled to look homey rather than slick and are interspersed with some location shots of baked goods in their native environment.

"Warm Bread and Honey Cake" provides not only a fascinating read but also a collection of recipes that you -- or the baker on your holiday gift list -- will return to for years to come.

 

Available at Amazon.com:

Warm Bread and Honey Cake: Home Baking from Around the World

Nick Malgieri is the award-winning author of "Perfect Cakes," "A Baker's Tour" and "Perfect Light Desserts".

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Get a Head Start on Your Holiday Fruitcake - Nick Malgieri Recipes

(c) 2009 Nick Malgieri