Last Minute Christmas Cake

Makes 1 large or 3 med/small cakes

Although I call this a Christmas cake, truth be known I whip it up regularly through the year as it’s my favourite cake of all – chock-a-block with fruit and fragrant with spices. I make a big cake for us, but I also bake smaller cakes like the one in the photograph, as gifts.  For me there is nothing more special than giving or receiving something that is homemade, knowing all the care and love that has gone into creating it.

300g unsalted butter

420g dark brown sugar

1.2kg mixed #dried fruits (I use fruits such as raisins, pitted prunes and dates, sultanas, currants and lovely smoky sun-dried apricots)

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1 cup (250ml) dark rum, port or muscat

½ cup (125ml) water

½ cup (125ml) cognac

2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg

2 heaped teaspoons cinnamon

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 ½ cups (400g) stone-ground wholemeal plain flour About 150g pecan halves and 120g whole blanched almonds, for decorating

Apricot glaze, optional (see below)

* As far as the dried fruit goes; I tend to use whatever happens to be in the pantry at the time – as long as the quantity is roughly the same the cake will be delicious.

Place the butter in a saucepan large enough to eventually hold all the cake ingredients and melt it over medium heat. Add the sugar and stir to partially dissolve it so it’s wet and slushy.

Meanwhile, slice any large pieces of dried fruit (such as the prunes and dates), into two or three pieces.

Now, tip all the dried fruit, the bicarbonate of soda, rum, port or muscat, water and cognac into the pan with the sugar mixture. Increase the heat to high and keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Once it has, stop stirring and bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat and let it bubble gently for four minutes. You need to keep an eye on it and adjust the heat at this stage, as it froths up considerably because of the bicarbonate of soda. When it’s ready, turn off the heat and leave the mixture to cool in the pan. I often make this in the evening and leave it to cool overnight. However, if you do this cover it well – I once left the lid slightly askew and woke to find an army of very inebriated ants weaving their way to and from the pan!

Preheat your oven to 150C.

Butter a 23cm x 23cm x 8cm square cake tin (or three 13cm x 13cm x 8cm cake tins) and line the base and sides with a double thickness of buttered baking paper.

Add the nutmeg, cinnamon and eggs to the dried fruit mixture and stir them in well. Mix in the flour, then leave the batter to sit for a few minutes. Scrape it into the prepared tin/tins and give it a gentle shake to level the top

Now comes one of the most enjoyable things to do: decorating the top of the cake. I love doing this as you can create all sorts of different patterns by marching alternating bands of pecans and almonds across the top, curving them into waves, or creating smaller and smaller squares.

Bake the cake for 2 ¼ – 2 ½ hours (if you are baking smaller cakes, they will take approx. 1 hour and 40 minutes) until it feels firm-ish in the centre when lightly pressed and a fine skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. After an hour or so, it’s a good idea to check the top; if it’s a good rich brown cover it loosely with a sheet of foil to stop it getting darker.

Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin on a rack, then remove it from the tin, wrap it tightly in cling wrap or foil, and store it in the fridge where it will keep well for up to three months.

Just before serving the cake, brush a little warm apricot glaze over the top, if using.

Apricot glaze (delicious and easy to make)

Boil about ½ cup of apricot jam or conserve with 1 ½ tablespoons of water for five minutes or so until the mixture becomes thick and syrupy (keep an eye on it and stir it regularly so it doesn’t catch and burn on the bottom of the pan). Pour it through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove any bits of apricot skin that may be in it, then brush the hot glaze over the cake and leave it to set.

To find out more about Belinda Jeffery go to: belindajeffery

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These tartlets really are the most delicious things, and they’re remarkably quick and easy to make for such a gorgeous result. I have to admit that as soon as we’d taken this photo, Rodney, the photographer, and I sat down and demolished one each in an embarrassingly short time! I’d also have to say that if anything they’re even better served barely warm with a scoop of icy-cold vanilla ice cream. The two important things to remember when you’re making them is to use sweet, ripe peaches as otherwise they will taste a bit insipid, and to use butter puff pastry.

If you would like to get these ready well ahead of time, the night before you can cut out the tartlet bases, put them on the oven tray, cover them lightly and chill them. You can also make the amaretti crumbs and store them in an airtight jar. You need then only prepare the peaches and you’ll have them in the oven in no time.

Serves 4

2 sheets ready-rolled butter puff pastry

4 medium-sized sweet, ripe (but not squishy) yellow peaches

1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar

½ – 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

About 1/3 cup (110g) apricot jam, warmed so it’s runny, then strained

Icing sugar, for dusting

Vanilla ice cream or rich cream, to serve

Amaretti crumbs:

60g amaretti biscuits

3 teaspoons caster sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon plain flour

Line a shallow baking tray with baking paper and set it aside.

For the amaretti crumbs, pop the amaretti biscuits into a thick plastic bag (a snap lock bag is ideal), seal it tightly, then finely crush the biscuits with a rolling pin. Tip them into a bowl; thoroughly mix in the caster sugar, cinnamon and flour, and set the mixture aside.

With a ruler as a guide, cut each sheet of pastry in half, then trim each half into a neat rectangle measuring approximately 9cm x 16cm. Use the tip of a sharp knife to lightly score a border, about 8mm wide, all the way around the edge of each rectangle, being careful not to cut right through. Sit the rectangles on the prepared oven tray and pop them in the fridge for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 200C.

Peaches ready to go…Photo: Rodney Weidland.

Halve the peaches, and carefully peel away the skins before slicing them into thickish wedges. (I usually pull away a little skin before I halve the peaches to see how easily they peel. If the skin clings stubbornly to the flesh, you’re best to dunk the whole peaches in boiling water for 20 seconds or so, then quickly drop them into a bowl of cold water. Now try peeling them and the skins should pull away easily.)

Scoop the peach slices into a bowl and sprinkle the caster sugar on top. Drizzle in the vanilla and using your hands, gently mix them all together. (I find hands are best for this, as a spoon tends to make little gouges in the slices.)

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the amaretti crumb mixture into the centre of each rectangle and spread it out evenly, being careful to keep it within the scored border. Now sit a fairly tightly overlapping row of peach slices down the length of each rectangle, again keeping them within the border. There will be some sugary peach juices left in the bowl, so drizzle the peaches with these, being careful not to get the juice onto the border as it may burn, or dribble down the sides and stick the pastry layers together so they don’t rise properly.

Pop the tray in the oven and bake the tartlets for about 20 minutes until the pastry is crisp and the peaches tender.

Brush the tartlets (including the pastry border) with some of the warm apricot jam then run them briefly under a medium/hot overhead grill for about 1 minute or until the edges of the peaches and pastry start to caramelise and darken (they may be some very dark bits but don’t worry, they taste delicious.) Watch them like a hawk as they can burn quite easily, and as soon as they’re ready, whisk them out from under the grill, dust them with icing sugar and leave them to cool a little – they’re lovely served warm or at room temperature. (If the tartlets are a good colour when they come out of the oven, there’s no need to grill them. Simply brush the peach slices with the jam, leave them a few minutes then dust the tartlets with icing sugar.)

To serve, simply sit a tartlet on each plate, dust it with a wee bit more icing sugar if necessary, and serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or cream.

For more information on Belinda Jeffery’s recipes go to:  belindajeffery

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Belinda Jeffery offers us a beautifully light alternative to the sometimes overly heavy Christmas dishes – a zesty calamari salad – perfect for the summer holidays.

Now the weather has become quite steamy, I’m starting to pull out all my salad recipes, and topping the list of favourites at the moment is this lovely lemony calamari one. It’s so very light and zesty, and full of lovely flavours and textures with its curls of tender calamari, crunchy pale-green celery, the mild sweet bite of red onion, and little bursts of heat from the chillies.

Serves 4

2 small red chillies, seeded and sliced into very fine strips

4 large calamari tubes (or squid hoods), cleaned (they should be nice and white)

¼ – ½ red onion, very finely sliced (or more to taste)

3-4 celery stalks, very finely sliced on the diagonal

¼ cup roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley

Marinade:

90ml extra-virgin olive oil

2 small red chillies, finely chopped

4 large cloves garlic, finely chopped

Dressing:

⅓ cup (80ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained

¼ – ⅓ cup (60 – 80ml) extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon small capers, rinsed and drained

1 clove garlic, crushed

Sea salt, to taste

To serve, optional: Slices of good sourdough or ciabatta bread that have been grilled or toasted and rubbed with a halved clove of garlic, then drizzled with good olive oil; flat leaf parsley sprigs and lemon or lime wedges.

Put the chilli strips in a small bowl of iced water. Cover it tightly and put it in the fridge. (If you’re wondering why I suggest to soak the chillies, it’s to take just a bit of the heat out of them as they’re being used as a garnish.)

For the marinade, whisk together the oil, chilli and garlic in a medium-sized bowl. Cut down one side of each calamari tube and open it out. Run your fingers over the calamari to check that no little bits of the quill are still attached – the quill feels hard and looks rather like a shard of fine, clear Perspex. Halve each piece lengthwise and use a sharp knife to score a diamond cross-hatch pattern on the inside, taking care not to cut all the way through. Put the calamari pieces into the marinade and swish them about so they’re well coated. Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge while you make the dressing.

Whisk all the dressing ingredients together in a large bowl, taste it and adjust the flavour to suit you, then set it aside.

Delicious for a light Christmas treat – calamari salad. Photography Rodney Weidland

There is a bit of an art to cooking calamari and much of it is in the timing. In general, it should either be cooked very, very rapidly or slowly and gently, anywhere in the middle and it becomes incredibly tough. In this particular dish it’s cooked quickly. So to cook it, heat a barbecue plate (or large, heavy frying pan) until it’s very, very hot – almost smoking. Add the calamari pieces, scored-side down, and cook them for 1 ½ minutes, pressing down on them occasionally with an egg slice or wide spatula. Now turn them over. As you do this they may start to curl, but don’t worry – as you turn each piece, press it flat for about ten seconds then let it roll, by which time it will be cooked. (If you are cooking the calamari in a frying pan, you may have to do this in batches.)

Remove the calamari pieces to a chopping board and slice the rolls into rounds about 1cm thick (if the pieces haven’t rolled, slice them into bite-sized squares). Toss them in the dressing until they’re well coated – you can leave them in it for up to 30 minutes if you like. Just before serving the salad, add most of the finely sliced onion, celery and parsley to the calamari and mix it in gently.

I sometimes just pile this up in bowls sprinkling it with the reserved onion strips, celery, parsley and chilli shreds. However to make it a bit more substantial, and to soak up the delicious dressing, sit a slice of garlic-rubbed toast on each plate, drizzle it with a smidgen of olive oil, then top it with some parsley sprigs. Divide the salad evenly among the four slices of toast. Garnish each one with a little of the reserved onion, celery and parsley, then sprinkle, sprinkle the chilled chilli shreds on top. Serve with lime wedges.

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I’m talking to Belinda Jeffery by phone, and the normally calm-amongst-the-chaos Jeffery is sounding, well, just a little bit stressed.

“I’ve been giving cooking classes for 36 people,” she says, “I’ve been on TV, radio, at book signings, doing workshops…it’s busy!”

But the busyness is for good reason – one of Australia’s most beloved food writers has a new book out – and for those of us who believe that you should actually be able to cook the recipes in a recipe book, this is a grand thing.

In this instance too, the book itself is a grand thing – a richly textured, large-format hardback filled with Jeffery’s signature dishes, inspired by produce and flavours from around the world and with Rodney Weidland’s exceptionally beautiful photography.

Jeffery’s books, which include Belinda Jeffery’s Collected Recipes; Mix & Bake; The Country Cookbook and Desserts have all been co-created with Weidland, and it’s the partnership that gives the books – if you’ll forgive the pun – that special flavour.

“Each book takes about two years,” Jeffery explains, “and one of the things that’s unusual about how we work is that everything is cooked and styled by me, and it’s all shot at my home in Mullumbimby. We don’t have a studio, or a food prep person, or a stylist. Rodney comes up throughout the year, usually for a week at a time, and the whole house turns into a studio. We’ve worked together for 26 years, since I first started, and he’s shot all of my books – we have a wonderful collaboration.”

The successful partnership has meant that Jeffery is given an unusual amount of freedom by her publisher at Penguin, Julie Gibbs, the genius behind many of Australia’s most iconic food books. “Julie just leaves us alone,” says Jeffery. “In fact it was actually Julie that came up with the title. We were talking one day and she said ‘all of us in the office were saying that the great thing about you Belinda is that you just give us utterly simple delicious food’. Then she stopped and looked at me, and said ‘I think that’s your next book’.”

Rodney Weidland has collaborated with Belinda Jeffery on all her books.

It’s been 12 years since Jeffery left Sydney for Mullumbimby, and decades since Jeffery first opened her Good Health Café in Mosman, right at the start of the interest in healthier food – and the realisation that it could taste good as well. During that time, Jeffery has become a staunch advocate for seasonal cooking, the farmers’ markets and growing your own vegetables and herbs wherever possible.

“The produce is the cooking,” she says. “When we moved here I found that I immediately felt closer to the cycle of veggies and fruit trees and fruit. It inspires me to walk around the farmers’ market in the morning. At the moment there are beautiful mulberries which I love, and for me it’s so important to use what’s there and immediate, in season, fresh and hasn’t travelled far.”

Another aspect of farmers’ markets that appeals to Jeffery is the personal touch. “I love dealing with the person that grew the produce, and these days I know all the stall-holders,” she says. “I listen to other people asking questions and talking and I’ve noticed there’s a whole new interest in health and organics. A few years ago you hardly saw anybody selling fermented foods – now quite a few do.” She laughs. “I love it all so much I sometimes wonder if I was a greengrocer’s daughter in a past life!”

Belinda and her husband Clive have just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

Asking a food writer to name their favourite meal of all time is perhaps the hardest question they could answer. I’m thinking to myself of all the amazing places Jeffery would have eaten at over the years, but her answer is immediate, and down to earth.

“Quite recently we went to Spain because my father-in-law lives there,” she tells me. “We visited Barcelona and went to the Santa Caterina market – which is not the big main market but a beautiful produce market. In amongst all the throngs and the stalls with the wild mushrooms was this tiny tapas bar. We were asking the chef at the tapas about the mushrooms, and he yelled something to one of the sellers who walked over with the mushrooms, and put them down. Our guy just cooked them so simply. He sautéed them with garlic and olive oil, and lots of manchego cheese, and then added a quickly cooked fried egg. We sat there surrounded by all the market activity with a glass of wine, and ate this delicious food. There was another dish they did with thin, crispy, deep-fried eggplant, with wild honey and goats cheese, asparagus and re-pepper sauce. It was all just the classic rustic food I love. Clive and I were there for a week, celebrating our 40^th wedding anniversary, and that food was the best food we had in Spain without a doubt. We went back every day.”

So many mushrooms: The Santa Caterina market

She thinks that perhaps the fashion for long, complicated meals for hours at a time in expensive restaurants is passing. “I know for ourselves that we love to go out to the wonderful pop-up restaurants that we have in our area like Forage & Graze and Francisco’s table,” she says. “I love to eat at our local little Japanese restaurant in Mullumbimby or at the Japanese café in Federal – and another favourite is Sarah Swan and the 100mile Table. Sarah used to work for Neil Perry and is a wonderful chef.”

Jeffery’s passion for simple food is continuing with her seventh book, which will of course feature all the beautiful local market produce. But in the meantime there’s the PR trail to get back onto before she can home again and relax. “Someone asked me if I was getting sick of signing books,” she says, “and I said I never get sick of signing books!”

* * * * * * * * *

It would hardly be fair to write a story about a new cookbook from our very own food writer and not include a recipe – and how can you ever go wrong with chocolate cake?

A Really Simple Really Lovely Chocolate Cake

I think that what makes this slim little cake so special to me is the texture/taste balance – the crumb is remarkably fine and light, yet it has a deep chocolate-y flavour without being at all heavy or cloying. It’s really versatile too – you can simply dust it lightly with icing sugar and serve it as is, or dress it up with a shiny chocolate ganache (see page 196) or billows of whipped cream and shards of praline, as we have in the photo. And to my mind, like all chocolate cakes, it’s only better for being served with berries that have been lightly sugared so their juices flow.

SERVES 8

80 g unsalted butter, roughly chopped
1/3 cup (35 g) dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/3 cup (80 ml) light olive oil
2/3 cup (160 ml) cool water
90 g good-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (220 g) caster sugar
1 1/4 cups (185 g) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 large egg, lightly whisked
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup (80 ml) buttermilk
300 ml thickened cream, softly whipped
almond praline (see page 197), to decorate

Butter a 23 cm springform cake tin (which is at least 6 cm deep) and line the base with buttered baking paper, then dust the tin lightly with flour and set it aside. (I’ve also made this in a 20 cm tin so the cake is a bit deeper; it worked quite well, but it domed a bit and had some fairly large splits in it – thank goodness for the whipped cream on top!)
Put the butter, cocoa powder, olive oil, water and chocolate in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Warm the mixture, stirring it regularly (a flat sauce whisk is ideal for this as it gets into the corners of the pan) until the butter and chocolate have melted and the mixture is smooth – just make sure it doesn’t come to the boil or it may become grainy. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sugar until it’s thoroughly combined, then set the pan aside until the mixture is cool.
In the meantime, preheat your oven to 150°C.
Tip the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and whisk them together with a balloon whisk for 1 minute so they’re thoroughly combined.
Once the chocolate mixture is cool, thoroughly whisk in the egg and vanilla, then stir in the flour mixture until it’s combined – don’t overdo this or the cake may be a bit tough. Finally, mix in the buttermilk. It won’t look like all that much batter and it will be quite runny.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin, shaking it gently to level the batter out. Pop the tin in the oven, and cook the cake for 45–50 minutes (if you’re making the cake in a 20 cm tin, it may take a little longer), or until it springs back when you lightly press the centre with your fingers, and a fine skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Sit the tin on a wire rack and leave the cake to cool for 5 minutes, then gently loosen around the sides and invert the cake onto the rack. Remove the base paper; sit another rack on top, and turn the cake again so it’s right-side up, then leave it to cool completely.
To serve the cake, transfer it to a cake stand or platter, and use a large palette knife to swirl the cream over the top, then decorate it with shards of praline.

Utterly Delicious Simple Food by Belinda Jeffery, Lantern Books, rrp $49.99 utterly-delicious-simple-food

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