Boca dot Cakes

The making of a truly sublime Christmas Cake...

 

...begins a year or more before it passes your lips.  Sometime just after Christmas a big order of organic and sulphur-free cranberries, dried cherries, raisins and currants arrive.  I then get busy with the kids measuring out and grinding - by hand, because you can taste the difference - our secret "gunpowder" spices.  We sterilise my old glass Le Parfait Jars and get out some new rubber seals.  We mix the fruit and spices and fill the jars, then we spill the "Nectar of the Gods", aka Whisky, into each jar until it reaches the top, if it's late enough I'll have a dram.  

The jars get packed away into the top shelves of my cool, dark pantry and there they stay until winter. I've soaked enough fruit over the last two Christmasses to be able to use 18 month aged fruit in my cakes now, next year it'll be 30 months of maturity! 

 

Baking days begin in the cooler months when it's ok to have the ovens running all day, we use organic rapadura sugar, biodynamic organic eggs and organic butter.  We then pile in the rest of the organic fruits; prunes, apples, peaches, apricots, dates, figs, and organic Australian macadamias, hazelnuts, and pistachios, for the Christmas colour.  The lids on the preserving jars are cracked and Christmas fills the room, the heady aroma of whisky and spices float around us in delight.  It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas.  My wild angels give a little stir to add each egg and make a wish for everyone, it's the part they like the best.  

 

Finally we fold in the organic, unbleached flour and our ground, organic almonds, and our local lemons and oranges.  I also use Kialla's Gluten Free Grains Flour for my GF cakes.  

 

After baking they are "christened" with more whisky and left to cool, then we wrap them up like little bubs and leave them to mature.  I gently unwrap them each week to sprinkle over some more whisky and then they are iced, boxed and ready to spread some cheer.  

 

I make Iced Cakes and "Naked" un-iced Cakes, they all come with beautiful ribbons and I hand make the little stars to go on the top.  I hand stamp little words on each star, Christmas wishes, your children's or friend's names, and dust them in edible gold powder. 

 

As I make all my cakes by hand, I can only make a limited amount, so you may order as early as you like.   

 

Merry Christmas from Boca dot Cakes