HOLIDAYING abroad didn’t stop Linda Ashton from analysing the properties of a rich fruit cake.
The former home economics teacher never hung up her apron, rather she switched sides and now judges in the competitive world of rich fruit cake.
She wins awards for her baking and was recently placed third at the Queensland Ag Show Dark Rich Fruit Cake competition.
Her expectations on how fruit cake should look and taste are ever present, even when holidaying.
“I have just returned from Europe and while in Portugal, I took a photograph of a cake on display,” she said.
“It wasn’t a rich, dark fruit cake but a traditional fruit cake they had a cut of in the window.
“It looked lovely because it had different glazed fruits inside it.”
She decided to order a slice with a cup of coffee.
“Well, they didn’t give us a piece of the cake from the one in the window, they had one in a pan and cut a piece from that one on the back counter,” Linda said unimpressed.
“Because I am a show judge and I have been judging Ekka and the Royal Easter Show in Sydney and elsewhere in Australia, I spotted a problem and disqualification point right away.
“The slice served to me had a wet spot in the middle which meant it hadn’t been cooked long enough.”
Linda said her husband agreed, the cake in the cafe window was different to the one they were served.
“We looked a bit harder at the cake in the kitchen and it was falling apart in the middle because it wasn’t holding itself together,” she said.
Linda’s passion for cooking these heavy, fruit laden cakes came from her mother who baked them for weddings, Christmas celebrations and any other event that called for one.
She recalls the aroma of it baking and how it permeated the family home.
The process for baking starts many weeks before and includes a large bowl filled with fruit left to marinde in brandy.
With that process over, in go the other ingredients and cake tins are lined with brown paper or newspaper.
Then the baking tins are ‘banged’ on the counter top several times to get an even distribution of fruit before the cake goes in the oven.
With such a lengthy process it is easy to understand why this category is so competitive.
Rich fruit cakes take a long time to bake and the ingredients are costly.
Linda estimates more than $100 goes into making a moderate sized fruit cake.
“I won the South East Queensland Sub Chamber competition last year and progressed to the state finals for my fruit cake,” she explained.
“I then competed at the Ekka for the title of Queensland’s Best Dark Rich Fruit Cake.”
This category is the main one at agricultural shows and competitions and there is also a light fruit cake, pumpkin fruit cake and a steamed plum pudding.
If you think the competitive world of dark rich fruit cake is filled with warm and fuzzy feelings, think again because sometimes judging is accompanied by a stern look or raised eyebrow.
“Cakes are put into a display box for everyone to see and I don’t know how I have done until I go into the Ekka,” she said.
“I was asked if I wanted to judge [at the Ekka] and turned it down because my cake was one of the entries.
“There were seven cakes all up and they are judged out of their display boxes.
“We are not allowed to know where they come from or who entered them, and one of them was mine.”
One of the other judges decided questions could be asked while she was in the process of judging.
“When [judges] say they want a 10 inch cake it doesn’t matter how tall that cake is as long as it is 10 inches square,” she explained.
“Mine was about three inches tall and the other five were five inches tall, and all were within competition guidelines.
“The judge was going through all these cakes and commentating as she did saying things like, ‘oh, I don’t like the taste of this one’ or ‘the fruit in this one is too tough’.”
Then came the question, ‘which one are you going to choose judge?’ and she answered number five … Linda’s cake.
“She said it was the only one that stood out for flavour and ticked all the boxes,” Linda explained.
“I thought ‘you beauty, I’ve got it’, then a commentator turned around and said ‘you can’t choose that one because it is not tall enough.
“When she came down off the stage I asked why she said what she did but she just shrugged her shoulders.
“In that competition, my cake was given third place.”
There’s no bad blood though because Linda describes the judging pool as a ‘sisterhood of judges’.
“You are never allowed to judge your own cake and our panel of seven, judge rich dark fruit cake first,” she said.
“We judge to very high standards because participants expect nothing less, it’s hard work to produce and costly too.
“There are many things we look for, they have to be flat on top, have no paper marks on the bottom or sides and no wet spots.
“There also needs to be an even contribution of fruit going through and of course, taste good.”
