I grew out of and back into oysters: as a two-year-old, evoking the chimp in Space Odyssey, I used to sit on my favourite shore in the Bay of Islands and smash open oysters with a stone. I couldn't get enough of those tasty salty little suckers. At 16 I ate a bad one (from an unknown source) and ended up in hospital. For 15 years I couldn't stomach them, until I somewhat furtively but nevertheless determinedly reprogrammed myself at The Cow on Westbourne Grove and The Queen's Head & Artichoke near Regent's Park. Yum Yum Yum. Yes. Oysters. Yum Yum.
I loved olives all along.
But Christmas Cake? I definitely had to grow into that one. All that fruit and richness never did appeal to little Francy-Pants. But then I turned thirty and realised that fruit cake is good. And for the last four or so years, I've been making my own. Well, Nigel's. Now that our seasons are out of synch (he's in the UK writing recipes for The Observer and I'm in a totally different hemisphere), Christmas is the only time of year we make sense - the season overrides the seasons and he's actually writing about something I feel like eating and can get hold of the right ingredients to cook. I've fiddled about with it year to year, and think I've finally nailed it. For my tastes anyway.
~the cake~
This cake must be made six weeks or so before Christmas as it needs to be fed every week with brandy. This is partially for flavour and partially for ritual...a reverse advent calendar for grown-ups who like making cake.
1kg dried fruits - prunes, apricots, figs, glacé cherries
500g vine fruits - raisins, currants, cranberries
5T brandy
zest of 1 lemon
zest and juice of 1 orange
350g butter
175g light muscovado sugar
175g dark muscovado sugar
150g Brazil nuts
5 large eggs
100g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
350g plain flour
Put dried fruit in bowl with brandy, orange and lemon zest and juice, chopping the larger fruit into smaller pieces as desired. Leave overnight.
Line a 24-25cm cake tin with a removable base with a double layer of nonstick baking paper, which should come at least 5cm above the top
of the tin. Set the oven to 160 C. Beat the butter
and sugar till light and fluffy.
When the mixture reaches a fluffy cappucino hue, add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, then slowly mix in the ground almonds, Brazil nuts (chop these into 1-2cm chunks), and the dried fruit/bandy/citrus mixture.
Mix the baking powder and flour together and fold them gently into the
mix. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin, smoothing the top, and put it in the oven. Leave it for an hour, then, without
opening the oven door, turn down the heat to 150 C and
continue cooking for two hours.
Check to see whether the cake is
done by inserting a skewer into the centre. It should come out with just
a few crumbs attached but no trace of raw cake mixture. Take the cake
out of the oven and leave it to cool before removing it from the tin.
Cover with foil and clingfilm and set aside until a week before Christmas, feeding every week with a couple of tablespoons of brandy (pierce the bottom of the cake all over with a skewer before pouring over the brandy). Brush cake with warmed apricot jam before icing.
~brandy icing~
I loathe marzipan so there's no almond icing on my Christmas cake.
300g icing sugar
50g melted butter
25ml cream
25ml brandy
Mix ingredients in a bowl until smooth.
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