Quandong Christmas cake

There’s no better way to celebrate the end of the year than with this perfect Christmas cake. It’s super simple: you boil everything down, and the native ingredients add so much punch. This is the cake I make every year and people love it. It celebrates our Australian nuts, muntries, quandongs and spices such as pepperberries. It’s really got everything, and it’s the easiest Christmas cake you’re ever going to make.

Credit: Armelle Habib

• serves

  8

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  1:25 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 250 g (9 oz/1 cup) butter, plus extra for greasing
• 100 g (31/2 oz) brown sugar
• 3 tbsp golden syrup (light treacle)
• 100 g (3 ½ oz) dried cranberries
• 200 g (7 oz) fresh quandongs
• 75 g (2 ¾ oz) macadamia nuts, chopped
• 125 ml (4 fl oz/ ½ cup) brandy
• 200 g (7 oz/1 1/3 cups) currants
• 200 g (7 oz) muntries
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon myrtle
• 1 tbsp ground allspice
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp ground strawberry gum
• 1 tsp ground pepperberry
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 220 g (8 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
• 50 g (1 ¾ oz/ 1/3 cup) self-raising flour
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Strawberry gum cream

• 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) thick (double/heavy) cream, or coconut yoghurt
• 1 tsp ground strawberry gum, or you can use lemon myrtle or cinnamon myrtle
• 60 g (2 oz/  cup) icing (confectioners’) sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (320 F). 
2. In a large pot, simmer the butter, brown sugar, golden syrup, cranberries, quandongs, macadamias, brandy, currants and muntries with 200 ml (7 fl oz) water until the sugar has dissolved and the fruit has softened.
3. Set aside for 10 minutes to let the mixture cool. Butter a 20–23 cm (8–9 in) round cake tin and line with baking paper.
4. Add the spices and lemon zest to the flours, along with the bicarbonate of soda, and mix in well.
5. Add the eggs to the cooled fruit mixture, then mix in the spiced flour until well combined. Pour the mix into the prepared cake tin.
6. Bake for 1 hour 25 minutes. Around the 45-minute mark, place a sheet of aluminium foil on top to make sure the top of your cake does not blacken or dry out.
7. For the strawberry gum cream, in a large bowl, mix the cream, strawberry gum and sugar together using a hand-held mixer (or use a stand mixer) and whip until thickened. Be careful not to overmix; this should only take 2 minutes using a machine mixer.
8. Serve on scones, with sweet dampers, fruit and cakes, or on top of a pavlova.

 

This is an edited extract from Mabu Mabu by Nornie Bero, published by Hardie Grant Books. Photography by Armelle Habib.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.