Day 7 of 12 Days of Christmas!

This is a take on the agar-agar pudding that always found its way to the Ramzan table, growing up. As a child, I simply did not appreciate the appeal, but now, I’ve grown to like it. This version, inspired by the many Korean vlogs mum watches, uses fruits to dress it up. Our attitude in general is ‘when in doubt, use coconut milk’ so that’s exactly what we’ve done here — to be fair, there are very few things in life that are not improved without a little glue of creamy coconut milk. We’ve also added a tiny bit of orange blossom to life up the flavours — it works really nicely with the fruit, as well. It’s incredibly easy to make, and it is a showstopper. A nice ta-da at the end of your dinner party, don’t you think?

Recipe: Magical Fruit Cake

Ingredients
200 ml coconut milk
200 ml milk
7 g agar
1/4 tsp orange blossom water
50 g sugar
3 strawberries, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 kiwi, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Handful of red grapes, sliced in half

For the decoration
2 thinly sliced pieces of strawberry
2 grapes, sliced in half
2 thinly sliced pieces of kiwi

Method

Wet the insides of the your serving dish — we used a 5 inch round dish that holds about 800 ml liquid.

Now carefully stick the slices of fruit along the sides and the bottom of the dish.

Mix the agar and sugar well and set aside.

To a small saucepan, add the milk, agar and sugar and bring it to a boil. Continue boiling it (stirring continuously) until it thickens slightly. About 5-6 minutes

Next, add the coconut milk and fruit and as it comes back to a boil, turn off the heat.

Add the orange blossom water, mix and carefully spoon it into the prepared dish.

Refrigerate until the ‘cake’ wobbles only slightly — about 1 hour.

When ready to serve, carefully slide a knife around the edges, and overturn gently onto a serving platter and serve cold.