KOCHI: It’s that time of the year. Mmm, one can sense a heady blend of aromas – of wine, cake, chocolate, cinnamon and clove. The joys of the yuletide spirit soaring high, you see. This weekend, we get to the basics of the good-old, classic ‘Christmas cake’ aka plum cake, made with dried fruit and nuts soaked in spirits of one’s choice (mostly rum or brandy). It is one dish that has transcended all cultural boundaries.
The plum cake has its roots in medieval England. During the weeks leading to Christmas, there was a tradition of observing fasting and abstinence from every kind of indulgence. On the eve of Christmas, a rich porridge was cooked, meant to “line people’s stomach” after days of religious fasting. The porridge (or pottage as the Brits call it) had oats, dried fruit, honey, spices, and beef. This was called ‘plum cake’ back then.
With the passage of time, more ingredients got added to it. By the 16th century, oats was replaced with flour. Butter and eggs were added, and the batter was then put in a wet flour cloth and boiled. This resulted in the formation of a speckled brown cannonball-shaped pudding. The rich started baking the batter in an oven. This was eaten with meats; was an ideal accompaniment to roast beef.
By the early 19th century, beef and plum pudding became traditional ‘English dishes’. It became a part of feasting, an integral Christmassy dish. In 1845, Eliza Acton was the first person to publish a recipe for the ‘Christmas Pudding’. Over time, the pudding got sweeter and squishier.
Well, are plums used to make the cake? Not really. In England, raisins or currants were also referred to as plums or plumb. As the cake is usually loaded with spirit-soaked raisins, it must have been colloquially named ‘plum cake’, say culinary chroniclers. There’s also a theory that prunes or dried plums were key ingredients of the original porridge, and the name might have stuck on. The rich plum cake travelled out of England when the families of men who worked in the British colonies across the world sent them Christmas hampers along with wine.
Kerala connect
For Keralites cutting across communities the rich plum cake is an essential element of Christmas-New Year celebrations. And it all began in 1883, in north Kerala. Mambally Bapu, of Thalassery, is believed to be the first person to have ‘officially’ baked a cake in India. He owned the ‘Mambally’s Royal biscuit Factory ‘ the land is known for the three C’s – cricket, cake, and circus.
“A Britishman named Murdoch Brown aka Murdoch ‘Prabhu’ ran the Anjarakandy cinnamon plantation here,” says Deepa G, assistant professor of history at CAS College in Kannur. “A few days before Christmas, he asked Bapu to bake a Christmas cake for him. He explained all that he knew about how to make one, and that’s how India’s first cake was baked.”
It is said that Brown had asked Bapu to source French brandy to add to the cake. Bapu, however, used a local infusion of kadalippazham and cashew apple! Thereon, cakes gained popularity. Through the generations after Bapu, various units of the bakery spread across Kerala, some named after the family members. One such outlet is the Santha Bakery, which was set up in Thiruvananthapuram in 1940.
“Initially, Christmas cakes reached only the upper and middle class,” says Deepa, who has co-authored a book titled ‘Kerala Bhakshana Charithram’ with the food writer Suma Sivadas. “In 1902, cake recipe columns got featured in local magazines. I have heard people of Calicut used to send recipes to the magazines.”
There have been a lot of local innovations and experiments. “The dish was Indianised. For instance, people used ghee, which was never found in any European cakes,” noted Deepa. Art curator and author of ‘Eating with History: Ancient Trade-Influenced Cuisines of Kerala’ Tanya Abraham says people quickly learnt baking techniques from the Europeans. “Baking came with the Portuguese,” she adds.
“They introduced ‘borma’ or ovens in Kerala. The practice of cake mixing, meanwhile, came from the English. The spices represent the three Biblical kings and the gifts they carried while visiting baby Jesus.” Deepa adds that cakes and wine were popularised by the Anglo-Indian communities. “Anglo-Indians have curated cake recipes, in many of their cookbooks, the most important item would be the Christmas cake,” she notes
What the bakers have to say?
In Kochi, the Pandhal Cafe’s 40-year legacy, Mattanchere Spice Plum Cake, is a sought-after Christmas delight. The cake is a culinary tribute to the renowned spice market (Mattanchery) of Kochi. “This is our pride. We want to take it globally and make the rest of the world experience a bit of Mattanchery,” says Dominic Joseph, VP of Pandhal.
CGH Earth chef Jose Varkey’s cake-making process is pure art. The matured plum cakes involve year-long efforts The fruits – raisins, prunes, figs, dates, and black currant – are handpicked and put through a curation process of four months. “The process begins in January,” explains Jose. “Fruits are washed and dehydrated. Then, they are stewed with honey, lemon juice, lemon rind, and candied orange and ginger peels. The preparation is kept in air-tight containers for at least four months, so that the fruits mature properly.”
The cake undergoes “double-maturing”. Once the fruits are matured, the cakes are baked four months before Christmas. So the fruits, now in the cake, go through another round of maturing. “The grape juice poured at first, while stewing, gets inside the fruits, making it all ‘plummy’. Then the juices within the fruits get to the crumb of the cake,” adds Jose. “The maturing process can be traced to British royalty chefs. The wedding cake of Prince Charles and Princess Diana was done in a similar manner.”
Thiruvananthapuram-based techie-turned-baker Parvathy Ravikumar’s traditional rum-soaked plum cake is another classic. Her signature recipe is inspired by several old relatives and culinary veterans. “Spices, butter, caramel, dried fruits and rum are used. The traditional Kerala plum cake has to be a perfect blend of all these ingredients,” she says. “As you cut the cake, the aroma of the spices should hit your nose. Though spices like clove and nutmeg are used, their tastes remain subtle.”
Kochi-based Dickle Johny Sagariga’s tryst with the Christmas cake was her grandmother’s age-old recipe – ‘Premium Christmas Fruit Cake’ – which was passed down to her. “My grandma used to teach me the recipe during vacations,” she recalls. “The ingredients include dry fruits, fig, apricot, orange peel, tutti frutti, cashews, spices and three types of grapes,” she says. “They are soaked in rum and homemade grape wine for six months. While mixing the cake treacle syrup (a form of sugar syrup) is also added.”
The young baker adds that she uses eco-friendly packaging material that can be used as table mats.