Best Christmas Bake ever! Okay last year was pretty special too as I had my daughter, son and his girlfriend involved (2017 Christmas Treats 7, 8 and 9). This year, I sent an invite to my nieces and nephews to participate. A resounding “yes” came back. I only had one request of them– the recipe had to be unique and something I have not done before. So over the course of the next 3 weeks I will present their cookies to you.

But first, a wonderful thing happened a few weeks back. I found some recipes – hand written and typed (on a typewriter!) of my mom’s. If you have heard me in previous blogs, she is the reason I fell in love with food. She could, even with her crippled broken arthritic fingers, whip up a meal for 60 people in no time flat. She was organized and had a natural inclination for making food tasty.

Christmas and Easter were her favorite holidays – yes she was devoutly religious, and she held nothing back at these times. We always ate buffet style in our house at parties but especially at Christmas and Easter. It would be impossible to have 15 different items on one plate. Our typical holiday meal would consist of roast beef, two types of chicken – wet and dry, lamb, goat curry, fish, shrimp, potato chops, croquets, pilau (or pilaf) oh and yes some vegetarian dishes. There would be spicy variations (for her favorite son – me 🙂 ) and less spicy variations for our respective friends/spouses/extended family and guests. Funny thing though – the spicy stuff always got finished leaving us with the sweet stuff. I’d complain – she wouldn’t flinch, she had to make all her guests happy. Oh and lets not forget her sweet table, it would put mine to shame – neureos, culculs, dos, coconut sweet, milk toffee, almond toffee etc.  No one ever left my mother’s house hungry.  And her favorite saying before anyone left our house “please take some with you”.

So you can see where my love and passion for food comes from. These recipes are the most valuable gift she could have left behind for her sons and grandchildren. So lets kick off this festive season with Christmas Treat #1 – Mum’s Christmas Fruitcake. I left the bones of this recipe intact. I made only changes to the fruit. I never liked raisins and would often say to her she needs to leave them out. She would very sweetly respond, “but then it wouldn’t be fruitcake” – end of discussion. How could I argue?! In my version, I added craisins instead of the raisins – sorry mum, and because I wanted to build on her recipe, I also added cashews instead of almonds. And, I completely (completely completely) left out the maraschino cherries and candied peel (her recipe called for 8 oz of candied peel and 6 oz of cherries – quartered – if you want to add it in!) – remember, I said I kept the bones of her recipe – the batter is the best part!!

The other thing I remember doing religiously with her fruitcakes was painting it with some type of alcohol from the time it was made to the time we served it on Christmas Day. Her favorite was brandy. Once a week, the bottle would come out and I would proceed to pour brandy over the cake. I’d carefully wrap it up and of course licked my fingers after the last cake was painted and put it back in the Tupperware (that’s all we had back then – sturdy and dependable Tupperware!) Over the years as she got older and would leave me on my own, I would try all different kinds of alcohol – whisky, scotch, rum etc. Really whatever I wanted to experiment with. Having grown up a Scotch drinker (really this was a rite of passage for all Goan boys), I am using Chivas.

In all honesty, the way they wrote recipes at that time is very different from now. I was surprised to see “4 level tsp of mixed spices, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger”, and “half a tea cup of candied peel”. I played around a bit until I got the right scent – it’s amazing how the aroma of something can take you back in time. All else is the same – I promise! As always – enjoy!

For the cake batter:
1 lb all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
2 ¼ tsp cinnamon powder
1 ½ tsp ginger powder
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp cloves
6 tsp cocoa powder
1 lb butter
1 ¼ cup brown sugar
8 eggs
1/3 cup golden syrup (or molasses for a darker color and deeper taste)
1 lemon, juiced (I also added the zest)
2 tbsp. very strong coffee – put two tbsps. of boiling water in a cup, add two tbsp. of coffee , mix and add to the batter
2 tsp vanilla

For the fruit mixture:
1 lb currants
1 lb craisins
½ lb chopped cashews
½ bottle spiced rum

Two weeks before you plan on doing this, soak the fruit in the rum – cover and set aside, returning to mix every day or so – I started this process on November 18
After one week, get your ingredients together
Preheat your oven to 325f.  Grease and line with parchment three 9”x5” loaf pans – I like loaf tins as they allow for better cutting
Sift all the dry ingredients – flour, spices, cocoa and set aside
Remove the dried fruit from the alcohol and spread on a baking sheet
Sprinkle with some – up to 1 cup, of the spiced sifted flour mixture, stir to coat – this helps the fruit stay afloat in the batter – set aside
In your stand mixer or by hand, cream the butter and sugar
When light and fluffy, add the eggs, one at a time scraping down the bowl as needed
Add the golden syrup or molasses (she changed to molasses in later years as she found it added a deeper richer taste) – beat
Add the fruit and flour mixture a little at a time and stir
Add the lemon juice, coffee and vanilla stirring between additions – the batter should be of stiff consistency
Divide batter evenly between the pans and bake for 60 – 75 minutes, check at 55 minutes (better safe than sorry) and then every 5 minutes thereafter until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a bit of crumb on it
Remove from the oven and let the cakes completely before turning them out
Paint with your favorite liquor, wrap in clean (did I really need to say that) cheesecloth and store in an airtight container – like Tupperware
Repeat this every couple of days until ready to serve – note, if your fruitcake is too moist, stop painting with alcohol and let it dry out a bit
When ready to serve, cut this into slices then cut each slice into 2 finger width (that’s what mum would say) pieces
Fruitcakes freeze abnormally well, so what doesn’t get over can be frozen and brought out at a later date – so good!!!
Please make this cake with your own variations if you like – good bones make a fantastic base to build on!
As always – enjoy!