A Christmas Cake recipe that explores contemporary flavors and is perfect for a coastal city Christmas. Hello and welcome to Trumatter. Grab your drink and let’s get talking Christmas cakes that are all set to be modern traditions.
By the way, this Christmas Cake Recipe, post and the honey is generously sponsored by HoneyandSpice– one of the very few curators & sellers of 100% raw honey in India. You can read about this amazing Bangalore based organization which is striving to make raw, wild honey a part of our daily, healthy lifestyle, while encouraging cottage industries and creating employments in the process. It’s a different thing that bakers in my timeline will go crazy with this info!
You know, I always stood by this theory that great food owes big time to great produce. If the produce is unadulterated, pure and fresh, the dish you are cooking is half way to being brilliant anyway. The produce shines through the dish rendering its flavor and color to it. You will instantly realize the difference in taste when something synthetic is used over something organic, and this honey exudes originality from every angle.
Collected from wild beehives by traditional groups of tribal honey foragers living in the forest lands across South India, HoneyandSpice’s Wild Honey is the honey to go for if you are looking for a honey to elevate your savory or sweet dishes. Floral, woody, intense and dark- this is perfect for honey-balsamic preparations, bbq, honey-mustard preps, pancakes and cakes. Note it’s viscosity: it’ll be amazing to swirl a few strands on French Vanilla Ice-cream. The possibilities are endless.
But is taste and texture the only differentiator? Ofcourse not! Everything that is intended for human consumption and which naturally occurs has some benefits to proffer. Wild Honey is has antibacterial properties that heals wounds, is full of vitamins and minerals, is good for your skin and is a natural humectant – which means it can take moisture from air and lock it on your skin and give you a fabulously glowing complexion. You can read more about the benefits here
Harvested from the deciduous forest regions of Orissa; Wild honey bees collect nectar from Red Silk Cotton trees to create this rare honey, and I thought it was my baking that made this cake so yum that I should give you this Christmas Cake Recipe.
You know what’s the best part about wild honey? It tastes different at different time of the year owing to what fruits are available at that time. How do I know this? My father was making water reservoir in a small village called Jayanti- a little hamlet of 50 houses in the lap of dooars, near the border of Bhutan. Every winter we used to go there to stay for a day or two. The villagers would walk up the hills to the orange orchards to pick oranges, which grow in abundance in that part of Bengal. And once in a while, they’d bring back jars of honey with them to sell which they would collect from the hives in orange trees. Man! 1 spoon and you are in heaven. At 80 rupees a jar, I used to lick that orange marmalade-y honey all afternoon while mum dozed. And in the summers, the honey would be woody and floral and smokey, which mum would waste in Chawanprash.
No seriously, I grew up in villages. Kurseong, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, siliguri, coochbehar- oh you haven’t heard names of any of these places because there is nothing in these places other than them being in close proximity to few of the most kickass places I have ever been in my life. And the experiences I have collected. This honey took me back in time.
And now to a Christmas Cake Recipe You’d Fall In Love With
Also, this Christmas Cake Recipe is inspired by Aimmee’s Banana Thyme and Honey Cake, from her website Twigg Studios, which I religiously follow! She is amazing that girl.
Ingredients:
For The Cake
How To Make Honey Thyme Cake
First: Toast the hazelnuts for 5 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Cool and chop. Keep aside.
Next, cream butter and sugar into a bowl. When light and creamy, add eggs- 1 at a time.
To this mixture, add double cream, honey and vanilla. Mix well.
Step 3 is to add self raising flour to the wet mixture. Though Aimmee adds hazelnuts at this point, I didn’t. I added them later on.
Spoon into 2 9″ tins and bake for 40 minutes {in my oven, though the original recipe calls for 45} in 180.
Cool and cut in halves.
Spoon the Syrup
Once the cakes are cooled, spoon wild honey syrup on top of each layer and rest.
Make The Frosting
Cream butter and brown sugar. Keep aside. Now whip double cream and gradually add the butter sugar mixture. Fold in the honey. The original recipe calls for 5 tbsp but I like my cream a little less sweet + I had the syrup to balance.
Assemble the cake
Spread even layers of frosting on each half of the cake, leaving the sides.
Now tier them one on top of the other.
With your hands, carefully pat the sides of the cake with chopped hazelnuts.
Garnish with edible red pearls and fresh thyme.
To make Thyme Infused Honey
Set up your double broiler and pour 1/2 cup Honey. In a small muslin bag add thyme {or whatever flavour you want} and add it to the honey. Because wild honey has a very distinct flavour I added nothing but thyme. Slowly heat the honey on low heat for about 7-8 minutes. Cool, strain and use. You can save this in a sterilized canning jar as well.
And that marks the end of our Christmas Cake Recipe.
Have a jolly time, Merry Christmas, and eat well!
Just gorgeous! I love your thyme addition and your photos. Really love what you are doing at Trumatter!
You know, I sort of took a break from work and I am seeing the instant difference. This will end soon but I will make maximum use of it. Loving the fact that i can get back in the kitchen again and take my camera out.
You are in all probability one of them who have watched me grow trumatter from what it was to what’s its slowly becoming. I have expressed my apprehensions many, many times over years and you have always told me to hang on. You’ve always asked me to continue doing what I do.
Though we never met, I always felt your mentorship, all the time. Thank you for being such an amazing person.
Love this recipe and everything about Trumatter! Merry Christmas Rukmini!
Merry Christmas Tammy! You have always been so encouraging. Love you to bits.