Handmade Christmas cakes
Some cakes are made for an occasion. Others become part of the occasion.
At Karapiro Catering Club, Christmas is something I look forward to making special every year. For a limited season, I produce my handcrafted Christmas cakes, handmade to order in small batches using quality ingredients, generous flavours, plenty of spirit and absolutely no shortcuts.
They are rich, celebratory cakes with a story behind them, based on a treasured family recipe and reimagined over the years to become something distinctly my own.
Although Christmas cakes sit at the heart of the cake collection, from time to time other seasonal and celebration cakes may make an appearance too. Made for sharing, gifting, long lunches and tables worth gathering around.
The story
It began at the Mount Maunganui camping ground, where the smell of brandy and fruit drifted from the old caravan kitchen while Christmas carols played. Grandad stirred the cake, Nana lined the tins, and another family Christmas tradition was underway.
Those summers meant cake after dinner, sandy feet, paper plates, laughter and someone inevitably sneaking another piece. The recipe itself goes back another generation, adapted by Nana from her nana's original recipe and made year after year as part of our family Christmas.
I started by making the cakes for my own family, then for friends. Before long, friends of friends were asking for them too. For the past three years, I have been making and selling them at Christmas, and eventually I realised they were simply too good, and the story behind them too special, not to share more widely. Today, they are part of Karapiro Catering Club.
The recipe has evolved, but the important things haven't: beautiful fruit, a generous measure of spirit, time and absolutely no shortcuts.
Spirit kissed. Handcrafted. A little bit mischievous.
About our Christmas cakes
Christmas in New Zealand has never looked much like a Northern Hemisphere Christmas, and I don't think my Christmas cake needs to either. I've kept the heart of our traditional family recipe but made it very much my own: a rich mixture of dried fruit, carefully chosen additions and a generous amount of premium spirit, soaked before being slowly baked in small batches.
There is no traditional fruit mince and no interest in cutting corners. You can also make your cake a little more your own, choosing from selected spirits and additions such as nuts, cherries and citrus peel according to your preference. Every cake is handmade to order, then given the one thing a proper Christmas cake cannot be rushed into having, time.
Once baked, the cakes are matured and regularly fed with spirit for a minimum of four weeks, allowing the flavours to deepen and develop before they are wrapped and ready for Christmas. That is why my Christmas season begins early.
Pre orders are now open. See order form at the bottom of this page
Ordering ahead gives me the time to make, mature and finish your cake properly. Once my Christmas baking allocation is full, pre orders will close.
Prefer to come and see me in person? I’ll be at selected markets throughout the season with cake to taste, pre orders and, closer to Christmas, finished cakes ready to take home. Rich, deliciously boozy and made for long lunches, summer evenings, family tables and beautiful gifts, or for hiding away somewhere nobody else can find it.
A family recipe, a Waikato kitchen and a very New Zealand Christmas.
Spirit kissed. Handcrafted. A little bit mischievous.
Christmas cake enquiry
Each cake is baked low and slow with creamy butter, brown sugar, golden syrup, lemon, and warm spices. Cakes are approximately 3.5kg and cost $245. Fill in the below form and we will be in touch to confirm your order and to provide our bank details to you for payment.
Customer feedback
We bought one of Kellie's Christmas cakes and honestly, it didn't last very long. It was rich, boozy, packed with fruit and absolutely delicious without being that heavy old-school Christmas cake that sits around for weeks. Even the people who "don't really like Christmas cake" kept going back for another slice.
It also looked gorgeous, so for about five minutes I considered pretending I'd made it myself. Very glad I didn't. We'll definitely be ordering again.
