Baked with love

There’s nothing like the scent of sweet treats baking to stir up a bit of festive love.

THE Christmas tree is out of its box – or perhaps it’s a live one this year, fragrancing the house with the heart-gladdening scent of pine?

Baubles and tinsel are glowing gently, carols are playing in the background.

The calender is marked in every shade of ink, with parties and meetups and dinners, for this is a time for far-flung (and nearby) family and friends to come together.

And tying it all together, the invisible magic of the scent of good things baking.

There’s a special alchemy to the festive baking, the combination of spices, butter and eggs, and heat and time and effort. The last two, especially, mean that breads and cakes and cookies tend to be made with meaning and love.

And so receiving a little baked something, or partaking of it, always has that warm little edge, that feeling of appreciation, given and received.

When I’m biting into that warm, crusty tart, I am reminded that loving hands kneaded the dough.

So get the cookie cutters and baking pans out. And think cranberry, orange and candied fruits – once again the flavours of the month, along with sweet spices and mulled wine. And all things red, green, white, silvery and gold.

In the kitchen we are going with red, in shades of cranberry, cherry, raspberry, strawberry and red apple, and since we are in the tropics, feel free to add red hibiscus (roselle) and mulberry too.

We hear that you want desserts that are not sugary sweet, so we have curated a lighter selection of Christmas cakes and breads, realised in the pastry kitchen of the French Culinary School in Asia.

In place of rich and toothache inducing puddings, perhaps a light, summery steamed orange pudding. It has a light and tender crumb, and orange syrup that you can spoon on according to your sweetness tolerance or diet needs.

You can even toss out the cream topping that comes with it – it’s nicer with, but both the pudding and the yoghurt loaf are good enough to enjoy on their own.

The cranberries add pops of tartness that make lips pucker a little – a nice disruption to the sweet festive cakes you are bound to encounter everywhere.

And if it’s the first time you are making a yoghurt cake, know that it has a slightly wetter, pudding-ish texture than the usual cake.

Add some cloves to the orange pudding if you like spices. Use coconut oil in the cranberry loaf to add a tropical headiness, and make mince pies your own by swapping apple for pineapple in the filling. Mince pies are rather sweet, so make them smaller to limit the damage.

A good bake is really the best gift you can give (even to yourself!).