Fruity, nutty and slightly tart, this delicious, richly spiced cake symbolizes love and affection, and making it is a true labor of love.Addictive love cake baked at Christmas
Growing up in Sri Lanka we never experienced a white Christmas, but it was a time of joy. It was the time of year when supermarkets hung Christmas trees, houses were decorated with pictures of snowmen, children gathered to sing Christmas carols, and lights flickered at night. But the best part of Christmas was biting into a slice of a traditional Sri Lankan Christmas dessert, a slightly crispy and extremely moist love cake. For me, this addictive fruity, nutty and slightly tart cake has nailed the season.
One of my earliest memories of a love cake was the rustling sound when my mother opened a piece she had received as a gift. At first glance, love cake looks brown, boring and tasteless, but then the heady scents hit you: citrus, floral and spicy. This dense, rich cake combines toasted semolina and chopped cashews with pumpkin jam. It is flavored and scented with ground spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, lemon zest, rose water and honey. Hard and crispy on the outside, soft and dense on the inside, love cake feels like a warm hug from home.
Sri Lankan-born chef Dhayanie Williams – a media personality and MasterChef Australia contestant – says the love cake has a fascinating history dating back several centuries. He explains that love cake was first baked in colonial Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known in the 16th century), was influenced by the Portuguese and Dutch who controlled the Sri Lankan coast for the spice trade, and was combined with local culinary traditions.
“The idea of a rich, spicy cake symbolizing love and affection likely stems from the Portuguese tradition of making dense, flavorful cakes with ingredients such as nuts, spices and preserved fruit,” says Williams.
In fact, it is widely believed that Sri Lankan love cake derives from a Portuguese cake called bolo d’amor (“love cake”), which is made with semolina, cashews and sherry and has a texture similar to love cake. Portuguese settlers and traders brought ingredients, techniques and recipes adapted by local people, Williams says. For example, the use of pumpkin jam may be an echo of dolce de gila, or Portuguese pumpkin jam; Sri Lankans may have adapted the original recipe to suit local tastes, using readily available ingredients such as cashews and coconut. William adds that all the ingredients play their part, and scenting the cake with fragrant rose water gives him a sense of pampering and romance.
Ranji Thangiah, a British food writer and photographer whose family comes from Sri Lanka, says the addition of rose water has a distinct Arabian influence. “It is found in cakes dating back to the Moorish occupation of Portugal and Spain,” he says.
There are other stories and theories about how the love cake got its intriguing name. It is said in folk tales that Sri Lankan women baked this cake to win the hearts of Portuguese sailors. Another story, Thangiah says, is that the recipe uses ingredients considered rich and exotic — cashews, butter and spices — and that you would only make it for someone you love very much.
Many chefs and home bakers also believe that preparing a love cake is, as Williams describes it, “a labor of love and patience,” and perhaps this is what gives the cake its name. “It’s a job that requires a lot of labor. You have to pay meticulous attention and a delicate balance of ingredients. It makes it more special by showing the care you give to your loved ones.”
Traditionally, love cake is prepared by Dutch Burghers at Christmas. These people are descendants of Europeans who intermarried with indigenous Sinhalese and Tamils, who are ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka. However, Sri Lankans from different communities both on the island and across the diaspora have embraced it. When Thangiah was growing up in north-west London, her Tamil-Sri Lankan mother made love cakes not for special occasions but as a treat. Thangiah says he cooked it “for no other reason than to show us that he loved us.”
As ethnic lines blurred, the love cake consolidated its role in celebrations where bonding and bonding were central. In addition to being gifted by families and shared among friends at Christmas, cake is often baked at weddings, birthdays and anniversaries and given “especially to newlyweds and new family members as a symbol of love and good luck,” says Williams.
Families often add their own touches to the recipe – like honey, brandy or almond extract – and these closely guarded family traditions are passed down from generation to generation. Because it has a rich, intense flavor, love cake is often served in small slices, which Williams says adds a touch of luxury to each bite.
Growing up in Sri Lanka, Williams was always buying love cakes from bakeries around the island. But when Burgher met her husband in Australia, she found her new family whipping up love cakes on most celebration occasions. She remembers learning it from her mother-in-law, who referred to a recipe in Hilda Deutrom’s Ceylon Daily News Cookbook, a classic book of Sri Lankan cuisine first published in 1930. But the measurements were in pounds, which surprised him as he was used to the metric system, so Williams spent his time poring over Sri Lankan cookbooks and talking to friends and family to put together a love cake recipe he could perfect.
As he became more proficient over time, Williams always had something on his mind. “My mother-in-law used to say that a good love cake should have three layers. The top layer should be like a crust, the middle should be soft and gooey, and the bottom should be a little hard,” she says. During Christmas, Williams and her mother-in-law would get together to chop ingredients and bake a love cake. But things have changed since Williams started taking orders online. “Sometimes my mother-in-law orders for me, so I take extra care because she’s the harshest critic,” she says.
Although making a love cake can be laborious, Williams explained that organization is key. During the festive season, he manually chops 10-15kg of cashews, which he describes as “the most difficult task”. “There are no shortcuts,” she says, “but you can use a cake mixer to mix leftover sugar and eggs so you don’t have to beat by hand.” Although perfecting this Sri Lankan delicacy takes time, it becomes much easier “once you get the right flavor profile and texture,” Williams adds.
As I learn about the long-held cake-making traditions that are firmly rooted in the heritage of the Sri Lankan Burghers and welcomed by all Sri Lankans, I now know that the beautifully textured, exquisitely delicious love cake of my childhood represents goodwill, love and comfort. Last time at my own wedding, it was cooked by my Tamil aunt and wrapped in gold foil, one for each guest to take home.