Blackpool, Nuwara Eliya mixes X’mas cake in creative and innovative fashion

Saturday, 16 December 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Christmas is synonymous with cake. The Christmas cake-making ceremony is an age-old tradition with a history going back to several centuries.

The most recent addition to the hospitality industry in the hill country, The Blackpool Hotel, Nuwara Eliya, just completing two years, has already made a name for their innovative and creative ways of carrying out the day-to-day operations. The latest is the traditional Christmas cake mixing ceremony held in the warm water pool (Unu Diya Pokuna) at the hotel. It’s considered a ‘first’ in the Sri Lankan hospitality industry.

CEO Bandhula Ekanayake, Leader of the House R. Muthuramesh, Leader of Culinary Experts, Waruna Thennakoon, Deputy Leader of Culinary Experts Chathura Rathnayake, Leader of F&B Services, Sudeera Bandara Herath, Leader of Engineering Facilities, Anura Henricus and all the family members of the Blackpool Hotel participated at this eagerly-awaited event in the hotel and tourism calendar.

The world over the hotel calendar gives a prominent place to this event with almost all the hotels bringing the hotel staff together to make it an unforgettable day in the life of a hotelier.

Tracing the history of Christmas cake, a Blackpool Hotel spokesman said that the English tradition of Christmas cake originally began as plum porridge. People ate plum porridge as a way of filling their stomachs on Christmas Eve after a day of fasting. Modifications to the original porridge such as the addition of dried fruit, spices and honey eventually turned it into Christmas pudding. Then, in the 16th century, a combination of butter, wheat flour and eggs replaced the original ingredient of oatmeal, turning the dessert into a boiled plum cake.

During Easter, the rich people who owned ovens made fruit cakes with marzipan (an almond sugar paste). Come Christmas, they would make similar cakes using seasonal dried fruit and spices (representing the eastern spices brought by the Wise Men).

“A crucial secret of a good Christmas cake is timing. Most Christmas cakes are made well in advance with many doing it as early as November, storing it upside-down in an airtight container and ‘feeding’ the cake every week until Christmas with small amounts of brandy, sherry or whiskey,” he added.

In Sri Lanka, it is the British traditional way of mixing and making the Christmas cake that is followed.

The Japanese Christmas cake is a frosted sponge cake with strawberries, chocolates or seasonal fruit and in the Philippines, Christmas cake is a yellow pound cake with nuts or the traditional British fruitcake. Both cakes are soaked in brandy or rum, a palm sugar syrup and water. Rosewater or orange flower water is also usually added to the mix.