Honey Cake of Madeira: traditionally linked to Christmas

The Honey Cake is one of Madeira’s most traditional food dishes and is traditionally linked to Christmas. It is customary to prepare it on December 8th, the day of Our Lady of the Conception, in order to acquire, during that period, the characteristics which make it unique.

The Honey Cake of Madeira, which can be preserved for a whole year, is prepared with treacle, its origins dating back to the heyday of sugar production in the archipelago.

Madeira Honey Cake recipe: 

Ingredients for the leavening:

-500 g unleavened flour
-30 g leavening (baker's yeast)
-about 3 dl water
Knead the flour with the yeast, make a ball, cover with plastic and let rise for 2 to 3 hours.

Remaining ingredients:
-1000 g unleavened flour
-350 g sugar
-300 g butter
-150 g lard
-clove (about 1.5 g)
-fennel (about 1.5g)
-15 g cinnamon
-50 g nuts
-50 g chopped almonds
-lemon zest
-400 g mixed crystallized fruit
-150 g sultanas
-15 g baking soda
-juice of 1 orange
-8 dl Madeira molasses
-2 dl Madeira wine

Baking instructions:

Mix the butter with the sugar until creamy, add spices and juice of an orange and a little lemon zest. Melt the molasses and lard together and add to mixture. Add the flour and baking soda and mix for about five minutes. Add to this dough the leaven previously kneaded and continue to mix for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Lastly, add the crystallized fruit and mix for an additional five minutes. Let rise for 24 hours. Place the dough in greased and wax paper-lined pans (only the bottom of the pan) and decorate the cakes with almonds and nuts on top. Bake them in a 190o degree oven, for 25 minutes. Honey cake is broken by hand.

Note: Use pans with removable bottoms, with a diameter of 15 cm and a height of 4 cm and place dough

Source: Turismo da Madeira

Madeira Christmas traditions

Discover an island full of festivals, getting ready for one of its richest annual traditions, celebrated to the fullest!

On Madeira, the lapinha (traditional Madeiran nativity scene), is assembled just a few days before Christmas day. The lapinha, lit with a traditional oil lamp, is built over a wood ladder, decorated with small bowls with rye, lentils and wheat, with small images of donkeys, sheep and goats, brindeiros (small loafs of bread), and seasonal fruit such as apples, oranges, English tomatoes and tangerines.

At dawn, during the Childbirth Masses, celebrated on the days before Christmas, in a spirit of conviviality among families to the sound of animated singers, Madeirans surrender to the ancestral “pig slaughter” tradition, the meat from which is used to prepare traditional seasonal delicacies, especially carne de vinha-d’alhos (meat marinated in wine and garlic). It is also during this period that one of the most delicious cakes of the season, the famous Honey Cake, is prepared. This is a very “rich” cake, prepared using ingredients such as sugar cane syrup, nuts and spices.

After Christmas, families start getting ready for the New Year. A grandiose and exuberantly beautiful spectacle in the unique amphitheater formed by the bay of Funchal brings an unforgettable wealth of celebratory light and colour to the last night of the year.

Find more information at: http://fimdoano.visitmadeira.pt/

Source: Turismo da Madeira