Inside our new book Broadsheet Sydney Food are the city’s most beloved bakers, butchers, grocers, bottle shops and more. Flip to the sweets section and you’ll find Flour and Stone.
Since 2011, owner and head baker Nadine Ingram has filled the counter of her small Riley Street bakery with fluffy lemon dream cakes, black-sesame chiffons and lemon drizzles. These sit alongside smaller items such as caramelised canelés, huge meringues, apple tarts and iced gingerbread cookies in the shape of sheep and rainbows. Since opening, Ingram has amassed a cult following so fierce it’s rare to attend a birthday party without one of her incredible cakes being served for dessert.
It’s no surprise, then, that Christmas is one of the busiest times for Ingram and her small team. “The mince-pie department can never keep up,” she says. “We might make thousands in the week before Christmas but are always outdone by demand.”
When it comes to Christmas cake, there’s one thing Ingram insists it must have – booze. Ingram prefers to use Marsala because of its fruity, nutty characteristics. “It feels quite Italian,” she says, which is fitting, because this cake is derived from the Italian Christmas cake she makes each year at Flour and Stone. It’s a work-in-progress of sorts for her, one that’s been going on for the past five years. “Every year I change something about it,” she says. ¬“Maybe different nuts or fruit, but the fundamentals of the recipe remain the same.”
Ingram’s biggest tip when whipping up this boozy, chocolaty beauty? Don’t skimp on the fruit and nut fillings. “There’s nothing worse than a Christmas cake that has the occasional sultana dotted through it,” she says.
Flour and Stone’s Chocolate Christmas Cake
Makes one cake.
Ingredients:
100g raisins
60g fresh dates (roughly chopped)
Rum (enough to cover)
125g unsalted butter (softened)
125g brown sugar
75g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste or 1 vanilla pod scraped
3 large free-range eggs
50g candied orange peel
1 lemon, zested
100g pine nuts (toasted)
100g whole natural almonds (toasted)
375g dark chocolate
100g honey
125g plain flour
Method:
Soak the raisins and dates in rum overnight by covering them with rum and leaving at room temperature.
The following day preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius, then line a 28cm cake tin with baking paper and set it aside.
Prepare the nuts and chocolate by chopping them separately in a food processor, or use a large knife to chop them as finely as possible.
Chop the orange peel and mix it together with the nuts and chocolate in a big bowl and set aside.
When the butter is truly soft, beat the butter, sugars and vanilla together into the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment until pale and fluffy. Then scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl using a spatula.
Whisk the eggs with a fork in a small bowl and then add them gradually to the butter mixture as it is beating on medium speed. If the mixture appears to curdle just scrape the sides of the bowl down and return to beating. This will push the butter back into the centre of the bowl and give the eggs something to “join” with.
Once all the eggs have been incorporated, remove the bowl from the stand mixer and fold through the nuts, chocolate and orange peel, followed by the soaked fruit and lemon zest. Don’t drain the fruit if there is any residual rum, just pour it all in for extra Christmas cheer.
Add the honey and finally the sieved flour, folding them through until well combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and smooth over the top using an offset palette knife or a spoon.
Bake in the oven for 40–50 minutes, testing for readiness by pressing the centre of the cake with your finger. If the cake springs back, it’s cooked.
There will be a lot of molten chocolate throughout the cake, so consider that if you feel it isn’t quite cooked when you test it – that chocolate will hold it together when it cools. With this in mind take the cake out when it seems to you a little undercooked.
Take the hassle out of Christmas gifting. Our new book, Broadsheet Sydney Food, is out now (RRP: $29.95). Order online at shop.broadsheet.com.au or find it at all good bookstores.