I don't have the small motor dexterity to construct and decorate
gingerbread houses, even with those pre-cut kits. The baking of
gingerbread doesn't faze me, but I am no good at icing and decorating,
it looks like my five-year-old did it, although his small motor is so
much worse than mine that I really should say - it looks like somebody
else's five-year-old did it.
But I am so excited about the gingerbread cake dessert I'm whipping up
for tomorrow's Christmas dinner. My old college roommate gave me a
sandcastle-shaped Bundt cake last summer - why? I don't know. She lives
in Rome, Italy and is a contemporary art curator and historian, so
there may have been some coded ironic message about American
consumerism and Christmas - and she's German, too, so she feels very
sacred about Christmas, but she's also very modern and bemused, having
been married to a famous conceptual artist for more years than was good
for her.
(I digress)
So I have this sandcastle bundt cake pan which may or may not be a
covert witticism but it's also a very cool looking form. Last week I
tested out a gingerbread (cake) recipe in it:
http://people.mills.edu/labusaba/castlecake.jpg
The white bits are where I was clumsy with the PAM spray and "light
flour". Cooking spray is new for me, but I thought it was necessary to
get into all the little crevices of the bundt mold. I was more careful
tonight. It's in the oven so I don't know how it will turn out - but I
think the effect is cool, anyway, sort of snowy.
Then I made a compote, adapting a recipe out of a Russian cookbook -
dried appples, apricots and raisins, a little sugar, a cinnamon stick,
ginger and a few cloves, lemon zest, and at the very end a splash of
rum. I really wanted to use orange flower water but my husband voted
for rum.
When the cake is done I'll turn it out on a plate. Tomorrow for dessert
I'll whip the cream and spread it around the castle base, perhaps daub
a little on the turrets; I may put some of the compote in a custard
dish set down inside the castle's -- keep? courtyard? Gotta brush up on
my castle terminology.
The children will all want just gingerbread cake and whipped cream but
the grownups will get same plus compote. I'm imagining that the
apricots will look like gold treasure or something. Having grown up
around Middle Eastern Crusaders' castles, I find this whole
construction wildly romantic, and love the Arab influences of the
compote. Oh yeah I'm going to stir in pine nuts as well - I once ate an
apple compote in Arcos de la Frontera, Spain, made from an old convent
recipe, with walnuts and orange flower water. The pine nuts are even
more Moorish/Arab than the walnuts would be. But the rum is pure
Crusader influence! Some other time, if this is a success, I'll do it
again with orange flower water, to be incredibly
Andalusian/Moorish/Arab about it.
Ginger and most of the spices used in gingerbread (I added cinnamon,
cloves and nutmeg to the recipe) were introduced to Europe by the
Arabs, via the Crusades. Apricots and dried fruit compote are beloved
by the Arabs, as well. So I'm tickled to make such a Christmas-y
dessert that pays homage to the half of my family that's Middle
Eastern.
I'm thinking of naming the cake "Krak Des Chevaliers" after a castle in
Syria I've never visited. I just like the name.
By the way, if you've gotten this far and are puzzled, remember that
Arab Christians exist in decent numbers - 20% of the population of
Syria, 12-15% of Iraq, 40-50% of Lebanon, almost that high among
Palestinians if you include the diaspora. (Don't know the numbers in
Egypt - a small but significant minority) My father's Eastern Rite
Catholic church is one of the oldest around, older than the church of
Rome. Jesus visited my hometown (Sidon and surrounding hills) and the
Apostle Paul founded early churches in the area. When the Crusaders
came to "liberate" Palestine and Jerusalem, they found indigenous
Christians who traced their spiritual lineage back to the apostles and
Jesus himself. So a Middle Eastern castle Christmas cake is a perfectly
appropriate reflection of my cultural and spiritual heritage.
Merry Christmas everybody. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Love,
Leila