It being that time of year, I was casting around for a Christmas cake that was suitably exotic for this blog, but still had that fruit-laden richness for cold winter evenings. To my surprise, the one that leapt out at me was a recipe from Sri Lanka, which makes something that’s recognisably in the English Christmas Cake tradition, but softer and moister. The ever-reliable sbs.com.au provided the recipe.
What distinguishes the Sri Lankan version is a hefty dose of chow-chow preserve (other Sri Lankan touches are the addition of rosewater and cardamom). Chow-chow is a fruit with many names: choko, chouchou, mirliton, chayote; it’s roughly the shape and consistency of a quince, with a bright green skin reminiscent of a Granny Smith apple. I couldn’t find the preserve locally, but the fruit was readily available in Indian or Caribbean stores, of which we have plenty in London, so I made my own preserve, which wasn’t difficult. (Admission: I did leave mine on the stove for way too long, so it crystallised on setting: this didn’t seem to damage the cake overly.)
Traditionally, you would cover the cake with marzipan and hard icing. That’s too much sweetness for me, so I just made the fruit cake. I also left mine relatively soft and gooey, which is really delicious, at the expense of being tricky to cut. You may want to leave yours in a bit longer than I did.
The chow-chow preserve
Starting with this recipe, this made enough for two cakes. You may want to halve the amounts.
- 1.1 kg chayote (3 fruits)
- 1.5 kg sugar
- 380 ml water
- ¾ tsp salt
- Peel and chop the chayote.
- Put everything into a preserving pan and cook until the fruit is soft and the syrup is thick. You probably want a sugar temperature of around 105℃ – I went well over that.
- Cool, and put into sterilised jars until needed.
- 150g unsalted cashews
- 150g unsalted almonds
- 200g glacé cherries
- 500g chow-chow preserve
- 150g glacé pineapple
- 240g raisins
- 240g sultanas
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp rosewater (see Note)
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- 60 ml brandy
- 250g unsalted butter
- 385g caster sugar
- 6 eggs
- 180 g semolina flour
- Preheat oven to 140℃ fan
- Line a cake tin with baking paper (these quantities work perfectly for a fairly tall 20cm x 20cm tin)
- Chop the almonds, toast them in a dry pan, set aside to cool
- Chop the cashews, toast them in a dry pan, set aside to cool
- Halve the cherries (if they weren’t already bought that way
- Chop the pineapple and chow-chow preserve so that the pieces are smaller than half a glacé cherry. How small you want to go is up to you.
- Put all fruits, zest, spices, rosewater and brandy into a large bowl and mix them up.
- When the nuts are cool, add them also and mix
- Chop the butter into small pieces and cream it with the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer
- One a time, separate the eggs, adding the yolk to the butter-sugar mix and incorporating it, and reserving the white in another bowl.
- Combine the egg yolk/sugar/butter mix with the fruit-nut mix, add the semolina flour and stir until evenly spread.
- Beat the egg whites until soft but not hard, fold into the mix.
- Spoon the mixture into your lined tin, pressing it to the edges to smooth out any ruffles in the baking paper.
- Cut another square of paper and place it on the top: this will stop the cake drying out
- Bake for around 3 hours, or more if you prefer a less gooey cake
- Cut into three or four rectangles
- If you want, ice with marzipan and hard icing.