Cakewalking with Nigella Lawson

Cakes and Nigella Lawson have a tantamount presence in many a people’s lives. And why not? She is not just a British food author and television chef but a food connoisseur much celebrated across the world. Her cake recipes are amongst the most favorite around Christmas season (no; almost throughout the year!) and on her website, one could access many of those formulae that barely go wrong. Ask any cake-bake junkie about her recipes and they wouldn’t be able to point out only one that’s their favorite—yes; that’s Nigella Lawson for you, dear ones! 

What/who decides which cake to bake then?

See, we realize “favorite” is a highly idiosyncratic or subjective term; so, perhaps, choosing a recipe that’s very simple to execute might make it your Christmas favorite. The one we are decoding for you here is a cake recipe which Lawson refers to as her “Easy-Action Christmas Cake”. So, come along, let’s find out if this one is really an easy-action recipe.

In Lawson’s own words: 

Before digging further, it is important to take note of how laid-back and delicious Lawson makes it sound to us. “I just throw everything into a pan, let the heat from the stove send buttery rum and citrus juices permeating into the currants, sultanas and raisins” is how she begins describing her process to us. Well, even those not much into baking cakes for once would want to shake a leg and bake some cake reading her portrayal of her method. She also highlights in the intro how the effort needs to be “minimal” on the baker’s part. 

Go, grab those ingredients first!

Never a great idea to start a process without placing all the requisite ingredients right in front of your eyes. Rummaging through all your kitchen cabinets for ingredients after you have started the process can turn your “easy action Christmas cake” into a complete nightmare. So, begin by placing everything right on top of your kitchen platform. For 10-12 slices of cake (increase the quantities if you are Indian coming from a large joint family of foodies), Lawson suggests getting:

• 775 grams of high quality assorted dried fruits (choose the ones you really appreciate in a cake, we suggest)
• 75 grams unseasoned or unsalted butter (almost all Indians know how to make this unsalted butter at home—bazar bought butter is likely to be seasoned. So, avoid your favourite Amul for this one!)
• 250 grams dark brown muscovado sugar (don’t be terrified by its complicated, Portuguese derived name; it is easily available via amazon.in and it is what you call as khandsari or khand in India. It is nothing but a sort of unrefined or semi-refined sugar containing some solid molasses that has a very distinct flavour) 
• 1 x 250 grams tin sweetened chestnut puree (another complicated name but believe us, chestnuts grow in India also. Yes, both water and tree chestnuts can be accessed here. We call them shaahabaloot and they are also available online—solid as well as in puree form)
• 125 millilitres dark rum (see “rum” as just an ingredient here, please. Lawson isn’t interested in getting you high for no reason! If you don’t believe in the consumption of alcohol, please feel free to use only orange juice, which you would see next in the ingredient list)
• juice and peel of 1 orange (take a large orange or use two for the peel. Remember, oranges we see commonly in our country are much smaller than what Lawson would be using for her recipe. You need to prudently cut off thin slices from the topmost of the orange. You can then chop those slices into strips)
• 3 large eggs (which she suggests you beat thoroughly before adding. Again, this ingredient is non-compulsory or optional from our end, if not from Lawson’s side)
• 250 grams plain flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon powdered cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon crushed or powdered cloves
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder

“Cake baking has to be, however innocently, one of the great culinary scams: it implies effort, it implies domestic prowess; but believe me, it's easy”—Nigella Lawson

• Now heat the oven to a mark that Lawson suggests: “2/150°C/130°C Fan/300°F”. Now let’s line the sides and base of a cake tin with greaseproof or parchment paper. Make sure you keep this paper higher than the sides of the cake tin. Wrap a double layer of brown wrapping paper on the outside of your cake tin and to ensure the paper doesn’t go slipping anywhere; to ensure this, string it with a thick thread. To allow the cake to keep growing delicious in slow heat, you need to keep the brown paper double the height of the tin, 
• take a wide pan or pot and gently bring to a boil your dried fruits, unsalted butter, unrefined sugar or khand, chestnut paste or pulp, rum, and the juice and peel of orange (s). Don’t forget to keep stirring. Relax as the mixture is on the simmer for the next ten minutes. Take it off the heat and let it cool down for around half an hour; the dried fruits need this time to completely marinade in the mixture. Now it’s time you added your crushed eggs, flour, baking powder, and all the mentioned spices. Stir well to mix everything uniformly and pour this mixture to your well-set cake tin
• place the tin in the oven for approximately 2 hours,
• when the cake is done, take it out and remove the wrapping paper. Once it completely cools down, you can remove it from the tin and place it in a foil or ungreased paper (if you aspire to decorate it like people usually do on Christmas, take it out of the paper only when you do it).

Some fun trivia for the diehard Nigella fans out there:

Nigella Lawson is a smart cookie (pun much intended); she graduated from the University of Oxford. And like most of us, she learnt to cook just by observing her mum. And what we are going to tell you next will really knock your socks off! Lawson is not a trained chef. Yes; she never received any formal training in the culinary arts. In fact, she began with having a career in publishing—eventually becoming the literary editor at The Sunday Times. Happy Christmas, y’all! 

 

 

Image courtesy: https://www.nigella.com/assets/uploads/recipes/public-thumbnail/easy-action-christmas-cake-563b1185e9d71.jpg