Today, the Christmas fruitcake in Goa is part of a local tradition.
Every big hotel in Goa organizes the annual cake mixing events. For example, The Leela Goa maintained the highest levels of safety and hygiene to organize their cake mixing event.
The cake mix included 100 kg of assorted dried fruits like apricots, almonds, dry cranberries, raisins, black currants, black raisins, glazed cherries, Tutti Frutti, dates, dry figs and spices like cinnamon powder, ginger powder, clove powder and cardamom powder was used along with a heady mix of brandy and rum. The mixture will be soaked and stored until around Christmas so that the dry fruits can macerate well.
The cake is more popular as a punchline than a dessert, but either way, it’s made its mark on the holiday. From annual loaf flinging contests, to moistening the cake (possibly with alcohol), to joking about how heavy a fruitcake is – the fun knows no end.
Love them or hate them, the Christmas fruitcake in Goa isn’t going anywhere. Today, let’s learn its history – and bite into whatever else we can find!
Historical Roots For The Christmas Fruitcake in Goa
Christmas cake is an English lifestyle that started as plum porridge. People ate the porridge on Christmas Eve, the usage of it to line their stomachs after a day of fasting. Soon dried fruit, spices and honey were added to the porridge mixture, and ultimately it became into Christmas pudding.
In the sixteenth century, oatmeal was once eliminated from the authentic recipe, and butter, wheat flour and eggs had been added. These components helped preserve the combination collectively and in what resulted in a boiled plum cake. Richer households that had ovens started out making fruit desserts with marzipan, an almond sugar paste, for Easter. For Christmas, they made a comparable cake by using seasonal dried fruit and spices. The spices represented the exotic eastern spices added by means of the Wise Men. This cake grew to be known as “Christmas cake.”
Christmas desserts are made in many different ways, however, normally they are variations on basic fruitcake.
They can be light, dark, moist, dry, heavy, spongy, leavened, unleavened, etc. They are made in many unique shapes, with frosting, glazing, a dusting of confectioner’s sugar or plain.
The common Scottish Christmas cake, additionally recognized as the Whisky Dundee, is very popular. It is a mild crumbly cake with currants, raisins, cherries and Scotch whisky.
Other kinds of Christmas desserts consist of an apple creme cake and a mincemeat cake. The apple creme cake is made with apples, different fruit, raisins, eggs, cream cheese and whipping cream. The mincemeat cake is made with common mincemeat or vegetarian mincemeat, flour, eggs, etc. It can additionally be steamed as a Christmas pudding.
All Christmas desserts are made in advance. Many make them in November, preserving the cake upside down in an hermetic container. A small quantity of brandy, sherry or whisky is poured into holes in the cake each week till Christmas. This technique is referred to as “feeding” the cake.
In the Philippines Christmas cake is a yellow pound cake with nuts or the ordinary British fruitcake. Both desserts are soaked in brandy or rum, a palm sugar syrup and water. Rosewater or orange flower water is normally added. The desserts have a lengthy shelf life, normally lasting many months. Sometimes they are eaten the following Easter or Christmas.
If you don’t have the time or endurance to make a homemade Christmas cake, high-quality shop bought Christmas desserts are appropriate options. You can discover many exceptional types and flavours.
