"The recipes emulate the rhythms and seasons of our lives, from annual gluts to family celebrations and festive gatherings.’’
So in this extract from the Melbourne-based husband and wife, former owners of Tivoli Road Bakery, a Christmas cake seemed appropriate given October is the traditional month to make it.
"The food we eat has enormous significance on our quality of life, as individuals and as a community.’’
Michael, who grew up in Cornwall and became a chef and then baker, met Pippa, an Australian from Canberra, in the United Kingdom, and both their heritages influence what they cook and bake.
One of their favourite past-times together, when they can, is indulging in new recipes and techniques over a weekend.
They like to see what is in the garden or at their farmers market, then deliberate over morning tea what to cook before spending the afternoon cooking.
"This kind of gathering and generous sharing offers space to slow down and rejuvenate body and soul, providing a sort of spiritual sustenance that sometimes feels like it belongs in the past.
"We can meaningfully connect to people, place, seasons and ourselves through our food rituals.’’
This is reflected in the couple’s new venture Ubanstead, which is about creating a more just and sustainable food system through education and community building.
Cooking improves kids’ dexterity, maths skills, creativity and openness to trying new flavours, they say.
"It’s also just fun to get messy and see what they come up with, and it teaches them what real food is.’’
The couple are also exploring different ways of sweetening things up by using less white sugar and more honey or unrefined cane sugars.
"Of course, they all have their place, but more and more we find that a greater depth of flavour, robust texture and the absence of a sugar rush bring more pleasure.’’
Their book is divided into chapters based on pastries, heritage bakes, quick recipes, recipes which take a little more time, preserving and bakes for occasions.
They do warn though, as with any craft, baking requires understanding and practice but like all creative pursuits, if you master the basics, your palette is limitless.
The Book
This is an edited extract from Sweet Seasons by Michael & Pippa James (Hardie Grant Books, RRP $NZ55).
Photography: © Rochelle Eagle 2024
Christmas cake
This is a traditional Christmas recipe that is baked several months ahead and then fed weekly with brandy, to preserve it and develop the flavour. Each week the anticipation builds with the remembrance of last year’s Christmas, and the hope (and slight anxiety) that this year’s cake will measure up.
This cake is inspired by one Michael first made back in 2004 at the very first Bourke Street Bakery in Sydneys Surry Hills. There, Paul Allam and David McGuinness started their journey, serving up their magic to a devoted following, eventually going on to open multiple stores and cement Bourke Street as a Sydney icon.
This recipe has stayed in our family, evolving ever since, and we just love it. Start soaking the fruit and make the cake towards the end of October. Once baked, douse it with brandy once a week until a week before Christmas.
Ideally you will feed the cake for 10 weeks before resting it for at least one to allow the alcohol to settle.
Serves 10-12
Fruit soak
20g water
20g caster (superfine) sugar
35g brandy
35g Pedro Ximenez
40g sultanas
35g currants
70g raisins
60g dried figs, quartered
35g prunes, pitted and quartered
35g dates, pitted and halved
25g mixed peel (see below)
Cake batter
90g unsalted butter
85g soft brown sugar
20g honey
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten, at room temperature
60g plain (all-purpose) flour
15g ground almonds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground clove
¼ tsp ground ginger
20g treacle (use honey if unavailable)
40g Seville orange marmalade
15g almonds, roughly chopped
15g pistachios, roughly chopped
40g dark chocolate, roughly chopped (at least 70% cocoa solids)
brandy, for feeding
Method
To make the fruit soak, heat the water, sugar, brandy and Pedro Ximenez in a small saucepan over a medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved.
Combine all the other ingredients in a large container with a lid, then pour over the liquid and stir well until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Leave the fruit to soak, covered, at room temperature for at least one week and up to two months.
Stir the mixture through occasionally for the first few days to thoroughly distribute the liquid you want it soaked through the fruit, not settled at the bottom of the container.
The longer you leave it, the more the flavour will develop.
To make the cake, preheat the oven to 160°C. Lightly grease a 15cm round cake tin and line it with baking paper.
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, gently cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the honey and continue to beat for another 2-3 minutes, until fully incorporated.
Gradually add the eggs in three batches, ensuring that each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next.
Work very slowly to ensure that the mixture doesnt curdle at this stage; if you notice it starting to split, add a small amount of plain (all-purpose) flour to bring it back together, but dont worry too much.
It will all come together.
Continue to beat for about 10 minutes, until pale and light. Meanwhile, combine the flour, almond and spices in a separate bowl and mix well.
Take the bowl off the stand mixer and use a spatula to fold in the flour mixture until just combined. Fold the fruit soak, treacle and marmalade through the mixture. Finally, add the chopped almonds, pistachios and chocolate and mix until combined and evenly distributed. It will become a thick, heavy cake batter.
Transfer the batter into the tin, then wet your hands and gently flatten the top for a nice finish and an even bake.
Bake uncovered for 50 minutes, then loosely cover the top with a piece of foil, rotating the tin as you return it to the oven, and bake for another 30 minutes, until the cake is firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, then invert the cake on to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, lay a sheet of foil large enough to encase the cake on the bench with a sheet of baking paper on top.
Place the cake in the middle of the baking paper and bring the edges up over the top to encase the cake, crimping it together to close it on top.
Place the wrapped cake in a sealed container and store it in a cool, dark place.
After a week, unwrap the cake and use a skewer to make 20 holes in the top, about two-thirds of the depth of the cake.
Brush the top generously with brandy, so that it soaks into the holes and well into the cake this is called feeding the cake.
Feed the cake weekly for 10 weeks, ensuring it is well wrapped in baking paper and foil after each feed.
After the last feed, leave the cake for at least a week before eating, although it will last for several months well wrapped in an airtight container, it will continue to mature with age.
SEASONS ALTERED
Macadamias are a lovely option to try instead of pistachios and almonds.
Hazelnuts go beautifully with the citrus peel and chocolate.
Don’t limit yourself — changing the nuts is a fabulous way to make this cake your own.
Cream cheese rugelach
Rugelach are sweet, filled pastries originating in the Jewish communities of Poland.
They’re shaped like a small croissant, but the similarity ends there — this is a fairly simple bake, and far less time-consuming. The flaky sour cream pastry is rolled with apricot jam, currants and chocolate to create little sweet treats with joy in every bite. Michael grew to love these while working with Maaryasha Werdiger at her incredible bakery, Zelda.
Maaryasha makes beautiful breads and pastries that connect her grateful community to their cultural origins. For best results, make the pastry by hand. Less is more here: minimal mixing will create a flaky and delicate pastry. Mixing by hand means you get to feel the dough, only just bringing it together. If you’re working ahead, you can freeze the rolled pastry pieces in an airtight container. Bake from frozen, adding a few minutes to the bake.
Rugelach is a wonderful morning indulgence, freshly baked and served with strong coffee.
Makes 12
20g soft brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
30g chocolate chips
40g walnuts, lightly toasted and roughly chopped
30g currants
1 teaspoon lemon juice
60g apricot and amaretto jam
Raw (demerara) sugar, for sprinkling
Cream cheese pastry
140g plain (all-purpose) flour
2g fine sea salt
Grated zest of 1 small lemon
100g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 3cm dice
100g (3½ oz) full-fat cream cheese, chilled
Egg wash
1 egg
splash of full-cream (whole) milk
pinch of fine sea salt
Method
To make the pastry, combine the flour, salt, lemon zest and butter in a medium-sized bowl and toss it all together.
Tip the mixture on to your bench.
Using a rolling pin, roll the butter into the flour until you have a shaggy crumble with large shards of butter still visible. Break up the cream cheese and add it to your pile.
Slide a dough scraper underneath one side of the mixture and fold it over itself, then repeat from the other side, bringing it together with your other hand and continuing to mix until it all just comes together.
There should still be streaks of butter and cream cheese visible. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for at least one hour, or preferably overnight.
To prepare the filling, combine the soft brown sugar, cinnamon, chocolate chips, walnuts, currants and lemon juice in a medium-sized bowl and mix well.
When you are ready to assemble the Rugelach, remove the pastry from the fridge and roll it out into a disc about 30cm in diameter and 3mm thick. Spread the apricot jam evenly over the surface and then generously sprinkle the filling over the top.
Use a sharp knife to cut it like a pizza, creating 12 wedges of roughly equal size.
Line two baking trays with baking paper.
Take one slice and roll from the outer edge towards the point, creating a mini croissant shape.
Place it on a tray, seam side down, and then repeat with the remaining slices, leaving a gap of 4cm between each one.
Refrigerate for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C .
Make the egg wash by lightly whisking the egg, milk and salt together. When the oven is hot, remove the trays from the fridge and brush each pastry with egg wash.
Sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake for 12 minutes, then turn the tray and bake for another 4-6 minutes, until golden and flaky. Don’t worry if the filling oozes out a bit, this will caramelise a little, giving a lovely toffee taste.
Cool slightly and serve warm. Store in an open container, loosely covered with foil so the sugar doesn’t weep, for up to 4 days.
SEASONS ALTERED
With the Jewish diaspora spread far and wide, you can find many variations in the pastry and fillings for Rugelach. Raisin and walnut is popular, as are poppy seeds or different fruit preserves.
Ginger fairings
Growing up in Cornwall, these intensely spiced biscuits were pure comfort for Michael, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.
They’re super fragrant when baking, and the ginger is almost fiery on the tongue.
They’re a wonderful biscuit to make and an easy, tasty addition to your repertoire.
Makes 10
110g caster (superfine) sugar
220g plain (all-purpose) flour
1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp fine sea salt
3 tsp ground ginger
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
1½ tsp mixed spice
115g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1cm dice
130g golden syrup or honey
Method
Preheat the oven to 160°C . Line a large baking tray with baking paper.
Sift the caster sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt and spices into a bowl.
Add the butter and use your fingertips to rub it in until everything is well combined.
Add the golden syrup or honey and mix with a spoon until fully incorporated. (This dough can also be made in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment.)
The mixture should be moist enough to roll easily in your hands.
Shape the mixture into balls approximately 60g each, and flatten them slightly with the heel of your hand.
(At this stage you can refrigerate or freeze them to bake later.)
Place the biscuits on the baking tray, spaced evenly apart and with room to expand during baking.
Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate the tray and bake for another 4-6 minutes until the biscuits are spread flat and golden all over.
Cool on a wire rack.
These biscuits are exceptional still slightly warm from the oven, and even better with a cup of tea. Fairings will keep in an airtight container for up to five days.
SEASONS ALTERED
If you like your biscuits more on the crunchy side, add a couple of minutes to the bake time. You could also push the bake even further and then crumble the biscuits to use as a topper on poached fruit served with thick cream.
This is delicious beside the fire on a cold evening.
If you’re unable to get golden syrup, use a good-quality pure honey.
In summertime, fairings make a great ice-cream sandwich with vanilla ice cream!
