by Jamie Oliver
For the Chantilly cream, halve the vanilla bean lengthways, scrape out the seeds, place them in a bowl with the cream, then sift in the confectioner’s sugar. Whisk until you get soft peaks, then add just a few drips of orange blossom water, to taste. Mix just a few drips of rosewater into your strawberry jam.
Place your scruffiest sponge on a cake stand and spread the jam over the top, followed by a thin layer of cream. Place the other sponge on top, then, dipping a palette knife into a bowl of boiling kettle water as you go, spread the rest of the cream all over the top and sides of the cake, smoothing it out nice and evenly. Rotate the stand as you go to help you, but try not to overwork the cream.
Place the cake stand in a large roasting pan and sprinkle your hundreds and thousands on top, flicking and gently patting them up the sides of the cake until you have an even coating. Hopefully all the ones that miss will fall into the pan, allowing you to scoop them up and put them to good use, too. Decorate with candles, sparklers, or bunting, if you want, and serve with a good cup of tea.
MY CHRISTMAS CAKE
PACKED WITH DRIED FRUIT, COCOA, STOUT, & SPICE
If I’m completely honest, I’ve never been a massive Christmas cake fan, but my mum insisted I put one in the book, so I spent months developing this, which I do like! It’s lighter than most—have fun decorating it, like I did with Buddy.
SERVES 16–24
3 HOURS 30 MINUTES
PLUS COOLING & DECORATING
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature), plus extra for greasing
5 oz mixed Medjool dates and prunes
1 lb mixed dried apricots, cranberries, peel, currants
1 apple
1 clementine
6 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons stout
1 cup + 2 tablespoons soft light brown sugar
4 large eggs
¾ cup + 5 teaspoons whole milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons quality unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon each ground ginger, pumpkin pie spice, ground cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 300°F. Grease an 8-inch square cake pan with butter and line the base and sides with parchment paper, lining the sides high.
Tear the pits out of the dates and prunes, then place all the dried fruit in a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Decant the mixture into a large bowl, coarsely grate in the apple, finely grate in the clementine zest and squeeze in the juice. Pour in the stout, mix well, and leave aside to soak for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, blitz the butter and sugar together in the processor until pale, smooth, and fluffy. With the processor still running, one-by-one crack in the eggs, then pour in the milk in a steady stream, blitzing until smooth. Scrape this mixture into the bowl of fruit and fold together with a spatula. Sift in the flour, baking powder, cocoa, and spices, then fold together again. Transfer to your prepared pan and bake for around 2 hours, or until cooked through and an inserted skewer comes out clean—if it needs a little longer, simply cover the top with parchment paper to prevent it from catching. Leave to cool for 30 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Now the fun bit, the decoration. You’ll see from the following pages that my lovely mum likes to keep things traditional—she brushes her cake with warm apricot jam, covers it with marzipan, then uses fondant icing to finish it off nice and smoothly. I, on the other hand, prefer to go a bit more to town. I do brush my cake with warm jam, too, preferably a sour variety, then embracing my inner Mary Berry, I make proper royal icing, and all my old toys come out (for decoration only, of course, so watch those little hands) … To make royal icing, whisk 3 large egg whites in a large bowl until fluffy. Sift 5½ cups of confectioner’s sugar separately, then, a spoonful at a time, fold it into the egg whites. Once combined, stir in the juice of ½ a lemon and ½ a teaspoon of glycerine. Beat until it forms stiff peaks, then use it to decorate the cake.
CLASSIC MINCE PIES
FLAKY PASTRY, MINCEMEAT, SWEET SQUASH, ALMONDS, & MAPLE SYRUP
I love all mince pies at Christmastime. This is my nod to the more traditional variety, but I think these are just a bit more interesting than usual, as the addition of delicious, sweet squash really lightens the classic mix.
MAKES 24
2 HOURS 15 MINUTES
PLUS COOLING
FILLING
1 butternut squash (2½ lbs)
32⁄3 cups quality mincemeat
¼ cup maple syrup
3½ oz blanched almonds
PASTRY
21⁄3 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
¾ cup confectioner’s sugar, plus extra for dusting
1 cup + 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (cold), plus extra for greasing
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon reduced-fat (2%) milk
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Roast the whole squash for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until cooked through. Once cool enough to handle, halve and seed, then scoop half the soft flesh into a bowl to cool (you only need half here, so keep the remaining roasted squash for another recipe, such as the one here).
Meanwhile, to make the pastry, sift the flour and confectioner’s sugar onto a clean work surface. Cube the cold butter, then use your thumbs and fingertips to rub it into the flour and sugar until you end up with a fine, crumbly mixture. Beat 2 eggs and the milk and add to the mixture, then gently work it together until you have a ball of dough—don’t work it too much at this stage as you want to keep it crumbly and short. Flour your work surface, pat the dough into a flat round, flour it lightly, wrap in plastic wrap, and pop it into the fridge for at least half an hour.
Lightly grease two 12-cup muffin pans with butter. Add the mincemeat and maple syrup to the bowl of cooled squash, then chop and add the almonds and mix together. Roll out the pastry on a clean flour-dusted surface to 1⁄8 inch thick. Use a 4-inch pastry cutter to cut out 24 circles of dough, then ease and press them into your prepared cups. Equally divide up the filling, then cut out 3-inch circles from your leftover pastry to top the pies, crimping the edges together as you go. You can also add pastry shapes to decorate, depending on how many offcuts you have. Brush the tops of the pies with beaten eggs, also using it to help you stick on any pastry decorations you’ve cut out.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the middle of the oven, or until golden. Leave to cool and firm up for 10 minutes in the pans, then carefully transfer to a wire cooling rack. Dust lightly from a height with confectioner’s sugar and serve. Lovely hot with a drizzle of custard, or warm or cold with a cup of tea. You can also box them up for another day, and they’re great as a gift, too.
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GET AHEAD
I love making these in advance. Stack them in the freezer and you can cook them directly from frozen, with a light egg wash, for 35 minutes.
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PHYLLO MINCE PIES
SOUR DRIED FRUIT, BRANDY, & MINCEMEAT PUFF-PASTRY SWIRLS
This tasty little number is my reinvention of the traditional mince pie, because it’s always nice to have options. I’m using a combination of puff and phyllo pastry, both of which you can buy ready-made in the shops for extra convenience.
MAKES 24
50 MINUTES
4½ oz quality mincemeat
1 oz unsweetened dried cranberries or blueberries
2 clementines
1 splash of brandy
all-purpose flour, for dusting
8 oz all-butter puff pastry (cold)
¼ cup unsalted butter
6 sheets of phyllo pastry (8½ oz)
1 large egg
1 oz flaked almonds
confectioner’s sugar, for dusting
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the mincemeat into a mixing bowl. Finely chop and add the dried berries, finely grate in the clementine zest, add the brandy, and mix well to make your filling.
Dust a clean work surface with flour and roll o
ut the puff pastry into a rectangle about 16 × 8 inches and 1⁄8 inch thick. Thinly spread over the mincemeat mixture, leaving a ½-inch gap at the edges. Tightly roll up the pastry lengthways, like a Swiss roll, place it on a floured pan, and firm up in the fridge.
Melt the butter, then use a little to lightly grease each compartment of two 12-cup cupcake pans. Place one layer of phyllo pastry over the pan (you may need more than one sheet to cover it, depending on the size of the sheets) and ease the pastry into each hole. Brush all over with more melted butter, then cover with a second layer of phyllo pastry and brush again with butter.
Take the puff pastry roll out of the fridge and, with a sharp knife, cut it into 24 slices. Place each slice, with a swirl-side up, into a phyllo-lined hole. Brush all over with beaten egg and sprinkle a few flaked almonds on top of each little pie. Dust lightly with confectioner’s sugar, then cook for about 30 minutes, or until cooked through, crispy, and golden. Leave to cool, then crack the individual pies out of the pans. Dust with a little more confectioner’s sugar before serving.
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GET AHEAD
You can freeze these uncooked in the pans—just wrap the whole lot in plastic wrap. Simply unwrap and cook for 35 minutes in your hot oven, straight from the freezer. Or, once cooked and cooled, you can freeze leftover mince pies, ready to reheat from frozen when you need them—perfect for unexpected guests!
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MINCE PIE STRUDELS
APPLE, SWEET POTATO, MINCEMEAT, PECANS, HONEY, & WHISKY
Back when I was a teenager, I used to love making big strudels at Christmas. Inspired by that, I came up with these mini cigar-shaped ones, which are a perfect companion or replacement for an old-school classic puff-pastry mince pie.
MAKES 12
1 HOUR
1 eating apple
5 oz sweet potato
½ cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2½ oz whisky
1 clementine
1¾ cups quality mincemeat
6 sheets of phyllo pastry (8½ oz)
1½ oz pecan nuts
1 tablespoon liquid honey
Peel and core the apple, peel the sweet potato, then chop both into ½-inch dice. Melt 1 knob of butter in a pan on a medium heat, add the fennel seeds for a couple of minutes, then add the apple, sweet potato, and whisky. Finely grate in the clementine zest and squeeze in the juice. Cook with the lid ajar for 15 minutes, or until softened, stirring occasionally and adding a splash of water, if needed. Leave to cool completely, then mix with the mincemeat.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Melt the remaining butter and use some of it to brush the inside of a roasting pan (11 × 7 inches). Unroll the phyllo pastry and cut the sheets in half down the middle. Working one-by-one, brush the edges of each pastry sheet with butter, place 3 heaping teaspoons of filling in the center at one end, roll it over a couple of times, then fold in the sides and finish rolling it up into a mini strudel. Place each one in the buttered pan as you go, with the seal at the bottom, then brush the tops with more butter. Chop the pecans and toss with the remaining butter, then scatter over the pan of strudels.
Bake at the bottom of the oven for 30 minutes, or until golden and crispy. Drizzle all over with the honey and you’re ready to go. Now, the only decision remains what to have on the side—a cup of tea, or more whisky…?
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GET AHEAD
Make these up to the point where you’re ready to bake them, and place the whole pan in the freezer to get ahead. Cook directly from frozen for 40 minutes.
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THE JAFFA CAKE
LAYERED SPONGE, DARK CHOCOLATE, & BITTER ORANGE MARMALADE
Inspired by a fantastic German Christmas cake, but also embracing the old-school chocolate orange Jaffa Cakes that we enjoyed as kids, this is a really fun, satisfying cake to put together—there’s real comfort in the making here.
SERVES 16
1 HOUR 30 MINUTES
PLUS CHILLING
1 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature), plus extra for greasing
10 oz golden marzipan
6 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons heavy cream
1 cup + 1½ tablespoons superfine sugar
10 large eggs
½ tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 orange
1 cup self-rising flour
½ cup cornstarch
5 oz quality rindless bitter orange marmalade
5 teaspoons whisky
10 oz quality dark chocolate (70%), plus extra to serve
1½ oz candied orange peel
Preheat the broiler to medium-high. Grease a deep 9-inch loose-bottomed cake pan and line the base with a parchment paper circle. Roughly chop the marzipan and blitz in a food processor with a splash of cream, ¾ cup of butter, and the sugar until pale and creamy. Separate the eggs, then, one-by-one, beat in the yolks, followed by the vanilla bean paste, the rest of the cream, and the finely grated orange zest. Sift the flour and cornstarch, then use a large metal spoon to fold them into the cake batter. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of sea salt till they form firm peaks, then gently fold into the batter using the same spoon.
Melt the marmalade in a small pan over a low heat, loosening it with the whisky, and keep warm. Smash up 3½ oz of the chocolate and melt with 2 tablespoons of butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Keep both to one side.
To assemble the cake, use a ladle to spoon just enough batter into the prepared cake pan to cover the base in a thin layer. Spread it out evenly, then cook on the top shelf under the broiler for 3 to 4 minutes, or until set and golden all over—this is really important, otherwise your layers won’t show. Ladle another thin layer of batter on top, and return to the broiler. Continue layering and broiling, mixing up the batter with thin layers of warm marmalade and melted chocolate as you go. Repeat until the batter is used up, then brush the top of the cake with a good layer of marmalade and run a knife around the outside. Leave to cool, then cover with plastic wrap and chill for a few hours.
A couple of hours before you’re ready to serve, melt the remaining 6½ oz of chocolate and 2 tablespoons of butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Once glossy, leave to cool for 5 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and set it on a serving plate. Pour over the chocolate sauce and use a spatula to spread it evenly over the top, letting it drizzle down the sides, smoothing it out if you like. Leave it to set, avoiding the fridge, which can make the chocolate go dull, then top with strips of candied orange peel. Great with extra shavings of chocolate on top.
CHURROS
WARM, SPICED, FLUFFY MINI DOUGHNUTS
These are naughty and delicious. I don’t make them very often, and that’s partly why we all love them so much. Dipped in melted or hot chocolate, they’re just a dream to eat—grubby hands and fingers guaranteed (and that’s just the adults).
MAKES 20–24
35 MINUTES
PLUS COOLING
6 tablespoons whole milk
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup self-rising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
4 cups vegetable oil
¼ cup superfine sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pour 2⁄3 cup of cold water into a medium pan and add the milk and butter. Bring just to a boil on a high heat, keeping a close eye on it, then remove and stir in the flour, baking powder, and a good pinch of sea salt, until you get a nice, smooth dough. Cool for 10 minutes, then beat in the egg until well combined.
Pour the vegetable oil into a large sturdy pan and place on a high heat. You want it to reach 350°F, so your best bet is to use a thermometer, but, if you don’t have one, simply use a little piece of peeled potato as your guide. Drop it into the oil, and when it rises to the top and turns golden, you’ll know the oil is hot enough. Now add a spoonful of batter and see how that reacts. Please make sure you are safe and
pay attention, and don’t have kids or pets running around.
You can either keep it simple and add little pieces of the batter, or you can mold it with your hands into fun shapes (about ½ inch thick). Working in batches, very carefully and gently add the shapes to the hot oil to fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Keep watching and turning them with a slotted spoon until they’re golden and puffed up all over, then use the slotted spoon to move them to a pan lined with paper towel to drain. Make sure the oil is back up to temperature before adding more.
Place the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl, and while they’re still hot, toss in the drained churros until well coated. Best served warm with a little glass or mug of my Hot chocolate (see here), but equally delicious simply with melted quality dark chocolate (70%) for dunking. These are finger-lickingly good.
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SPICE IT UP
If you’ve made a batch of my Spiced Christmas sugar (see here), that would be delicious used here in place of the cinnamon sugar.
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CANNOLI BRANDY SNAPS
FILLED WITH SILKY SWEET RICOTTA, CHOCOLATE CHIPS, & FRUIT
This is an outrageously delicious treat, with a crispy, crunchy outside and a gorgeous sweet filling. They’re easy to make, a little bit messy to put together—but boy will you have fun doing it—and, of course, they’re super-tasty to eat.
MAKES 16
1 HOUR
BRANDY SNAPS
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
1⁄3 cup soft light brown sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ an orange
1 tablespoon brandy
confectioner’s sugar, for dusting