Call me old-fashioned, but I like a bit of cake in my Christmas cake -- by which I mean the butter, flour and sugar bit that holds the fruit together. When I see advertisements in the back of newspapers and food magazines for -- usually American -- mail-order fruitcakes that are "all fruit," I can't help thinking they are missing the point. If it's just currants you are after, then go eat an Eccles cake.
Over the years, I have worked at my Christmas cake and pudding recipes probably more than any other. I knew what I wanted: plenty of crumbs, fruit and booze, and with the warm crunch of nuts. It had to be a generous size so that there would be some for anyone who turned up, but not so large that we all got bored and started pondering alternative uses for it. The essence of it all was that it had to be rich, moist and not too sweet.
It occurred to me that currants and raisins are sweet but not really very juicy, so I put in dried apricots and figs and whole undyed cherries from the health food shop, which made the cake more succulent. Another year I found that whole hazelnuts give a better texture than finely chopped nuts, which can often introduce a certain grittiness.
The sweetness of the cake is something I have fiddled with forever and a day. I now feel I have a good balance. I should say here that I am as fussy about the sugar I put in my cakes as I am about the (unsalted) butter or the (free-range organic) eggs. Not for me a bag of soft brown sugar that lists its ingredients as sugar, molasses and glycerol (that's the norm, by the way). The anonymity of that first word troubles me.
Cooking times also took a while to get right; too long in the oven and you have a cake not even a whole bottle of brandy can revive. Too short and you have a dip in the middle you could rest a mug in. It shouldn't raise any eyebrows to change the fruits, though it probably will. There can be no harm in tinkering with this one -- Christmas cake is a relatively new recipe (unlike mincemeat, which goes as far back as the 16th century). So it is not as if we are tampering with anything sacred. What I am determined to do is produce a recipe that avoids the ultimate sin of being dry.
A Christmas cake always seems a little happier for having seen the inside of a brandy bottle, and in this weather who could blame it. I start feeding mine, pouring in the alcohol through holes pierced in its bottom, as soon as it is cool enough to hold. You can't really taste the spirit in the cake -- the notion is to make it richer, more worthy of a feast.
One shouldn't forget, or sneer at, those who dismantle their cake, picking out the layer of almond paste or passing their icing on. Each to his own, I say. I use a soft, fudgy icing, of which more in a few weeks, but I must admit to loving the lot: the cake, the marzipan and the icing. But then, cake of any sort is something I take very seriously.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique