Guest post by Jacoba Budden

Brandy, even more than wine, is one of the most essential accompaniments to food in the holiday season. Cocktails, sauces, desserts and Christmas cakes are enriched by the spicy sweetness and the bold alcohol. No Christmas cake would be complete without generous lashings of brandy, liberally applied months in advance if you can.

Anyone visiting the Cape should, without doubt, go on one of the brandy routes. South African brandies are rich in their diversity and of excellent quality – in no small measure due to stringent manufacturing regulations.

The two major brandy producing areas, the Western Cape and the Small Karoo, both produce outstanding brandies and the R62 route highlights two of the best.  Try the KWV – my father’s favourite throughout his life (and he had impeccable taste) but without doubt, Barrydale Cellar’s 10 year old Joseph Barry Cape Potstill Brandy – it recently won the 2008 Juliet Cullinan Wine Connoisseur’s Awards. Barrydale grows the St. Emillion cultivar, used widely in the production of cognac but is, here, the most important component in this brandy. The mild and salty Indian Ocean winds, the soil and a darned good winemaker work together to create a truly remarkable brandy.

In the spirit of Christmas I’ll include the recipe for our family cake below – to drink with it, something like Kanonkop’s Cabernet Sauvignon would be perfect because there are few wines that I like as much, but it’s really pricey and maybe just a touch too savoury for everyone’s liking.

For my money, I would pick the Paul Sauer because of the dark berry smattering of Merlot that smoothes out the high Cabernet/Franc content to invade the senses with an oaken spicy fruit matching the cake to perfection! One doesn’t forget this cake in a hurry – and certainly not the wine! Even though it’s summer and can get extremely hot in the Cape, the cake doesn’t lend itself to something lighter.

Ingredients

500 g butter
500 g sugar
500 g cake flour
9 eggs
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground mace
250 ml brandy
1 ½ teaspoons ground cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
125 g seedless raisins
250 g sultanas
500 g dates
125 g pecan halves
250 g almonds, roasted and cut in half
250 g glace cherries, halved (mix red and green for a great effect)
250 glace figs
500 g mixed peel (orange and citron)
250 glace apricots
375 g glace pineapple rings

Additional brandy to add throughout the maturation period

Method

* Soak fruit overnight in brandy.
* The preparation of the cake tin is very important to prevent the cake from burning. It is a very heavy cake and weighs close to five kilograms.  For this reason 3 layers of wax paper is used, each layer greased before the next one is put on. (And if you want to put in a fourth, got for it)
* Mix and sift all dry ingredients together
* Whisk butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
* Add eggs one by one, beating carefully after each addition and after the fifth egg, sift in a little of the dry ingredients.
* Sift in a little flour after each egg and continue until all the flour is incorporated with the exception of two tablespoons to sprinkle over the fruit later.
* In the meantime, sprinkle the bicarbonate of soda over the fruit, wait for the reaction, sprinkle over the flour and incorporate the fruit into the dough.
* Pour the cake mixture into the prepared cake tins, making a small hollow at the top so that the cake does not rise too much, should it do so.
* Bake for 5 ½  hours on 140 C.
* Remove from the oven, place on rack very carefully and allow to cool down completely.
* Sprinkle with brandy and then wrap up in soft tinfoil and then in a stiff foil, folding carefully to close the cake with the opening of the foil on top.
* Open weekly and drizzle a little brandy over the top.

* Shortly before Christmas, cover in a thin layer of smooth apricot or strawberry jam, wrap in a coat of marzipan and ice with white butter icing, glycerin or royal icing.