How to bake the perfect cakes for Christmas

Source  :Anoothi Vishal :ET :18 DEC, 2011, 01.16AM IST, 






Christmas is here and if you've forgotten to soak the nuts & raisins in brandy for that perfect cake, here are some options. 

Christmas, according to an unlikely but delightful tome on ancient rituals, legends, and, well, magic (Ancient Wisdom by Cassandra Eason), is a continuation of older pagan festivals marking the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, when the ancients prayed for the birth of a "new" sun. 


The Persians had a mid-winter feast, for instance, where they kindled great fires to mark the birth of Mithras, their sun god. In northern Europe, Odin, rode, Santa-like, through the sky on his chariot dropping presents, which he also left at the foot of his sacred pine (the modern Christmas tree?). 

The Romans celebrated Saturnalia for seven days, beginning December 19, where debauched, old Father Time (Saturn) was replaced by a new sun god born in a cave; elsewhere, fir branches were hung out to encourage other trees to grow, Yule logs (which we perhaps see only as pastry) were burnt to "give life" to the new sun, and in general, the year-end was celebrated as a time for regeneration, spiritual and otherwise. 

Each of these festivities also had rituals of cooking and eating. In fact, the Christmas pudding that has become so popular even in India today (where Christmas has typically comprised appams and stew, or indeed the Bebinca (a layered cake from Goa) was, till the 16th century, really a porridge with fruits, grains and a piece of metal (a silver coin) to represent the Earth's fertility. 

THE HOME BAKER 

Today, of course, it is synonymous with rich plum cake, where nuts and raisins need to be soaked in brandy for at least a month, as Delhi's "home-baker" Aparna Pasricha insists.

Those of you who missed the bus, yet insist on baking one, need not despair. 

Chef Prashant Anand from the Westin in Gurgaon, who customises cakes for clients, gives a simple recipe:

 mix together 1 kg dried fruits, orange and lemon zest, three eggs,

 100 g maida, 

150 g bread crumbs, 

250 g brown sugar and

 butter each.

 Add 1 tsp each of clove, nutmeg and five-spice powders

 (should you not have these, add a little garam masala, says the chef). 

Add 150 ml of either brandy or beer or whisky and keep this batter in the fridge for 48 hours so that the nuts can soak in all the flavours and alcohol. 

Finally, steam-bake (place the baking pan in a container of water), at 120 degrees.

The trick to any successful baking is that you must follow all the instructions, and that includes exact measurements. 

"If a recipe says 1-1/3 spoon, even that 1/3 is important," cautions Pasricha.

 This is exactly what my own baking teachers, including my aunt Minoo Rishi, who would teach me during summer holidays in school, always said. 

An inability to follow rules unquestioningly has been my undoing - the only cake I bake today is the easiest; with equal parts of flour, butter (or oil) and eggs (each egg roughly weighs 50 g), which can be enhanced by adding carrots and walnuts, or merely grating some chocolate over.