Hold On, Where’s the Plum in the Plum Cake?
From a medieval Christmas porridge to a global fruit cake
Though Christmas is primarily a Christian celebration, it’s one of those holidays that is celebrated across the world and its cultures. Each community has its own unique Christmas tradition based on food, ritual and even clothing. Mine was based on plum cake.
Now, plum cake is not made out of plums. Actually, not a single plum goes into the Christmas cake. So then why on earth is it called plum cake?
Plum cake’s roots can be traced back to medieval England where its early ancestor was a rich porridge that was prepared to “line the stomach” for the upcoming Christmas feast. The rich cake-like pudding was served at the beginning of advent when the abstinence period began and was saved until the twelfth and final celebratory day. The pudding was served upside down after the celebratory meal.
The porridge is believed to have been made with oats, dried fruits, honey and sometimes even meat. It’s nothing like the modern plum cake- rich, boozy and crumbly. And thank god for that.
Plum cake’s roots can be traced back to medieval England where its early ancestor was a rich porridge that was cooked to “line the stomach” for the upcoming Christmas feast. The rich cake-like pudding was served at the beginning of advent when the abstinence period began and was saved until the twelfth and final celebratory day.
Around the 16th century, flour, eggs and butter replaced the oats and meat in the porridge. The batter then was boiled in a muslin cloth for several hours, producing a thick, dense fudge also known as the cannon ball. However, in wealthier households, the batter was baked in an oven, allowing the plum cake to start taking its current form. At the time, each house had its own unique recipe to produce plum cake that depended upon the tastes of the Lady of the house.
And to answer my original question, its unclear as to how exactly the plum cake got its name. Historians believe that raisins or currents were also called “plums” in England at that time. Thus, the name might reflect the ingredients in the cake itself- abundant with raisins, the plum cake is a rather controversial baked good today and isn’t quite popular with younger audiences who generally dislike the pungent taste of raisins. I know I didn’t as a child. My mother would try to convince me to eat the plum cake by saying that the raisins were actually chocolate chips, and when I was younger I naively believed her. However, that wouldn’t last too long. By the time I was a teenager, I’d sworn off plum cake entirely- a cake to me was indulgent with chocolate the way a Black Forest or a Devil’s Food Cake was. It should not be a dense, bread-like, dry-fruit filled baked good.
When I was about 16, I briefly also interned at a bakery in a hotel close to my house. The work was rather mundane- I separated the eggs for the cheesecake, and if a little yolk slipped into the egg white mixture, I started all over. After a few days of doing this, I was asked to bring out the dry fruits from the pantry for the chefs to measure. At the time, I didn’t quite understand what I was doing and simply watched the chefs curiously. The table was covered with various packets of dry fruits, which were subsequently opened, weighed and placed in a large bowl. After about half an hour, I approached my supervisor and asked him what was happening, and he replied: “We’re starting the plum cake.”
I remembered thinking to myself why he was starting so early- it was only October back then and Christmas was a good two and a half months away. I later found out that the dry fruits were marinated in liquor for months, only after which it was incorporated into the batter and baked as a Christmas fruit cake. The process piqued my interest in the historical legacy of this Christmas cake- I wanted to know where this infamous cake had originated and how it had made its way down to Bangalore (now Bengaluru).
In the 19th century, the plum cake was facing the very real threat of extinction after Queen Victoria outlawed the feast of the twelfth night. Confectioners who had been stocking up on ingredients in anticipation for the feast decided to incorporate their stock into a cake which would prove to be wildly successful. At the same time, British officers working in colonies began to bake cakes for their Christmas celebrations with their families’ months in advance. Seeing this, their British relatives would often send them plum cakes as a part of the Christmas hamper, filled with wine and presents for the family. And so, the humble plum cake traveled across the continents of the world, gracing one Christmas table after another.
Confectioners who had been stocking up on ingredients in anticipation for the feast decided to incorporate their stock into a cake which would prove to be wildly successful. At the same time, British officers working in colonies began to bake cakes for their Christmas celebrations with their families’ months in advance. Seeing this, their British relatives would often send them plum cakes as a part of the Christmas hamper, filled with wine and presents for the family
Today, almost each country across the world has its own version of the plum cake. Last Christmas I decide to give the plum cake another chance and found out that it happened to be my mother’s favorite Christmas tradition when she had been growing up in Bangalore. Back then, she had lived close to a number of Christian bakeries and families, within the cantonment area in Bangalore. Each Christmas her British neighbor would send my mother and grandparents a home-made plum cake. Almost every bakery back then displayed freshly baked plum cakes around Christmas time. Today that is no longer the case- you can find plum cake packaged in small boxes, displayed in aliases of grocery stores year-round. They taste rather unpleasant, like brownies gone wrong.
But a freshly baked plum cake is wonderful. Denser than other cakes, the plum cake also is considerably richer. My mother taught me to heat up each slice of plum cake that I had, slathering it with butter before I ate it. That might sound odd to many, considering a traditional cake is light and airy, coated with a thin layer of frosting or buttercream. But the plum cake isn’t like traditional cakes at all. It’s denser than a cake, but lighter and crumblier than bread. Each bite is indulgent and boozy, rich with softened dry fruits.
So on your next Christmas, head down to Bangalore and try a freshly baked, traditional plum cake from one of the cities’ older and infamous bakeries (Koshy’s and Nilgris are still the best). Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
Originally Published on LinkedIn
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