Christmas is coming, and with it the cake

November 12, 2007 - 9:23 AM by Nicky

Made my Christmas cake this weekend. Yeh, I know what you’re thinking, but not everyone in Israel is Jewish. 

Anyway. 

Making an English Christmas cake in Israel requires a great deal of preparation, foresight, determination and the ability to look El Al security officers squarely in the eye when they ask you what the hell you’re doing bringing black treacle and marzipan into the country. 

Brits like their Xmas cakes dark, rich, fruity and very alcoholic with a covering of marzipan and royal icing. You’re supposed to make them eight weeks in advance, but I feel very proud of myself for managing six and a half weeks before hand this time. Normally I end up making it three weeks in advance. 

My Israeli friends call it old cake. As in “You made that cake two months ago! You’ve got to be kidding. No way am I going to eat that thing.” And then they shake their heads in disbelief and leave the room mumbling something incoherent but definitely rude about British cooking. 

I normally avoid mentioning the fact that we finish eating the last bits around May or June, and have even kept one for a year. 

The problem is that you just can’t get the ingredients out here. I tried trawling the shops for black treacle for years before I gave up the search. Supermarket assistants would look at me bewildered when I tried to explain. Even at Tiff Tam they looked at me as if I was an alien. 

And then there’s the mixed spice. “All spice?”, they’d ask me. “No, not All spice, Mixed spice.” “Old spice?”  “No, MIXED spice.” “Minced spice?” “NO, MIXED SPICE.” 

Yeh right. And what about the marzipan and icing sugar? Israeli marzipan just doesn’t cut the mustard, and the icing sugar is full of potato starch. Don’t ask me why. Maybe it’s got something to do with the heat. Anyway, the taste just isn’t good enough, and I have to add that to my shopping list of must have items every time I go back to the UK. (By this stage, the El Al security guy is normally tutting openly.) 

One year I bought back a bottle of glycerine for the icing. My Israeli husband looked at me in horror. “You know that glycerine is used in bomb-making!” he yelled. 

So. You collect all your ingredients from England, and what you can get from the Israeli supermarket and then you have to find time to make it. It takes about an hour of preparation, and four and a half hours of cooking – another fact that raises many eyebrows among my dubious Israeli friends. And while it’s cooking, you’ve got to wrap the cake tin in brown paper tied by string and lay a piece of greaseproof paper over the top with a hole the size of a quarter in the middle. 

We’ve progressed so far that this year my husband tied the string without a single rude word. 

Gradually my Israeli friends and neighbors are coming round to the taste. Last year, a friend even surprised me and asked – by herself – if she could have a piece. Progress indeed. 

Tags: • Category: Food, General, Holidays, Immigrant Moments 

Comments

7 Comments on Christmas is coming, and with it the cake

  1. Nicole on Mon, Nov 12th 2007 10:35 AM

    2. Do you put coins in it too?

    FYI, you can get proper icing sugar here, but you have to go to a specialty food/baking store, not a supermarket (Taste in Raanana has it)

  2. Katherine on Mon, Nov 12th 2007 1:44 PM

    3. you just took me right back to my childhood. can I PLEASE come over for a piece? My mom’s christmas cake is a thing to behold, also made a good long time in advance, and we also eat it for weeks after christmas (not months because it never lasts that long). YUM!

  3. nicky on Mon, Nov 12th 2007 2:13 PM

    4. Good news about the icing sugar, will try that this year (forgot to bring over the icing sugar in the summer.)

    We used to put coins in our Christmas pudding, but though I loved the coins, I never managed to get the taste for the pudding. Just too dark and heavy.

    Glad to know I’m not the only one who likes christmas cake here… will gladly supply you with the recipe, but you’ll have to bring the black treacle back yourselves.

  4. Stephanie on Mon, Nov 12th 2007 8:49 PM

    5. I’ve never had it! Is it the same as Christmas pudding? Because that I had. Here, surprisingly enough, when an English friend brought one over for X-Mas lunch. Yours sounds fab, though.

  5. Rachel on Mon, Nov 12th 2007 9:09 PM

    6. Christmas pudding is not bad (with brandy butter) but Christmas cake is truly awful, I reckon- a bit like wedding cake – nobody likes it !

  6. www.christmasforallofus.info » Christmas is coming, and with it the cake on Mon, Nov 12th 2007 11:36 PM

    7. [...] nicky placed an interesting blog post on Christmas is coming, and with it the cake.Here’s a brief overview:Made my Christmas cake this weekend. Yeh, I know what you’re thinking, but not everyone in Israel is Jewish. Anyway. Making an English Christmas cake in Israel requires a great deal of preparation, foresight, determination and the … [...]

  7. Avi on Tue, Nov 13th 2007 2:41 PM

    8. Personally, I say who needs cake? Now chinese food, that’s a different story. Can’t have Christmas without a trip to the Chinese restaurant… even in Israel!

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