Is time running out to make a Sri Lankan Christmas cake?

The clocks have gone back, by 6pm the sky is the colour of ink, and winter is hurtling toward us. Like every year, I’m left with the feeling that time is rapidly running out and that it might be too late to start making my Sri Lankan Christmas cake.

Making a Sri Lankan Christmas cake is an endeavour that takes planning and patience. It cannot be taken lightly, because in a Sri Lankan household it’s an act of love for family, tradition and being Sri Lankan.

I’ll admit I am tempted to use one of the more modern recipes, which would be far easier to follow and save a lot of time.

But, for as long as I can remember, having a Sri Lankan Christmas cake has always been part of how our family celebrated Christmas. 

It’s a tradition that started with my mother’s grandmother, passed down to my grandmother, my mother, and now me. It makes me feel connected to something bigger than simply, Christmas cake. 

Like Mum, I’ll be using Charmaine Solomon’s recipe. 

If you’re not familiar with Charmaine, she’s one of the original “aunties”, one of the OGs of Sri Lankan cooking. And it’s her recipe that has been handed down to me.

Making a Sri Lankan Christmas cake starts weeks, perhaps months, before Christmas. This year, I’m late to start the process, playing catch-up.

Next week, I’ll be racing out to get my dried fruits—raisins, sultanas, papaya, and pineapple—as well as glacé cherries, preserved ginger, chow chow, mixed peel, and cashews.

I’ll tip the chopped fruits and nuts into a Tupperware-style container, lacing the contents with generous lashings of alcohol — arrack (a spirit distilled from the nectar of the coconut flower) if I can find a bottle, brandy if I can’t.

The fruits and nuts are left to soak, and every now and then I’ll top it up with more booze.

I’ve refreshed my memory on the number of eggs it takes to make this cake: 12 yolks and 6 whites. Modern recipes that have reduced the egg count, but that won’t do. A Sri Lankan Christmas cake is rich, the kind of richness that comes from 12 egg yolks. So, don’t be timid; crack in the eggs!

I remember last year, I booked out a whole day (and more!) to make the cake. Thinking it would take only a couple of hours to bake, as the recipe suggested, it actually took four. I recall crawling into bed in the early hours of the morning!

Once baked, I’ll wrap the cake in foil, periodically feeding it with more alcohol, and just before Christmas, I’ll seal it in marzipan and coat it with royal icing ready to be eaten on Christmas Day.

Have you started thinking about making your Christmas cake ? Sri Lankan or not, let me know!