Chef Joost
Appelbeignets (Dutch Apple Fritters)
A winter apple ring in light batter, fried for oudejaarsavond, New Year's Eve, when the oliebol makes the noise and the quieter beignet keeps the cinnamon-sugared secret.
Culinary Explorer
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Kersttulband
Created by
A fluted Christmas cake with a turban-shaped name, Central European cousins, and a very Dutch destiny: butter, fruit, and powdered sugar placed proudly at the centre of the koffietafel.
Desserts
Dutch
Christmas
Holiday
Celebration
35 min
Active Time
1 hr cook•2 hr 30 min total
Yield1 24cm cake, about 12 slices
The Christmas tulband did not enter my grandmother's second notebook as a showpiece. It entered in pencil, with one practical instruction underlined twice: vet de vorm goed in, grease the mould well. That tells you almost everything about Dutch celebration baking. We are perfectly willing to put a crown on the table, provided it releases cleanly and feeds twelve people with coffee.
The name already tells you why the cake looks the way it does. Tulband is the Dutch word for turban, borrowed through Europe's long fascination with Ottoman cloth and headwear; in the kitchen it became the name for the high fluted ring mould whose folds make a cake look wrapped rather than merely baked. It has cousins in the German Gugelhupf and Alsatian kouglof, but at Christmas in the Netherlands it comes home as kersttulband, a buttery coffee-table cake with raisins, currants, succade, and a snowfall of poedersuiker, powdered sugar.
But let me tell you a secret: the trick is not the decoration. The trick is air, patience, and a mercilessly greased mould. Cream the butter and sugar until pale, add the eggs slowly so the batter does not sulk, toss the fruit with flour so it stays suspended, and dust only when the cake is cool enough to keep its white crown.
Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. Serve it in thick slices at the koffietafel, the coffee-and-cake table, where children pick at the raisins and adults pretend not to notice the second piece. History and cookery, they cannot be separated, but here the history sits quietly under the sugar, waiting for the knife.
The Dutch tulband belongs to the same ring-mould family as Gugelhupf and kouglof, cakes that moved through Central European and Low Countries kitchens in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as fluted copper and earthenware moulds became prized household equipment. Its Dutch name means turban, a reference to the wrapped, ridged shape of the mould; the Christmas version enriches the plain butter cake with raisins, currants, candied citrus peel, and the everyday spice wealth that entered Dutch baking through early modern trade. At the holiday koffietafel (coffee-and-cake table), it became a practical festive centrepiece: handsome, sliceable, and easily made a day ahead.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
raisins
Quantity
150g
currants
Quantity
75g
succade or candied orange peel
Quantity
50g
finely chopped
strong black tea, orange juice, or dark rum
Quantity
75ml
warm
unsalted butter
Quantity
250g
softened
extra butter for the mould
Quantity
as needed
fine caster sugar or witte basterdsuiker
Quantity
225g
vanilla sugar or vanilla extract
Quantity
8g or 1 teaspoon
lemon zest
Quantity
zest of 1 lemon
finely grated
large eggs
Quantity
5
room temperature
plain flour
Quantity
300g, plus extra
for batter, fruit, and mould
baking powder
Quantity
10g
fine salt
Quantity
3g
ground cinnamon
Quantity
1 teaspoon
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
ground mace
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
whole milk
Quantity
75ml
room temperature
blanched almonds
Quantity
50g
chopped
fine dry breadcrumbs or flour
Quantity
as needed
for dusting the mould
powdered sugar
Quantity
30g
for finishing
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| raisins | 150g |
| currants | 75g |
| succade or candied orange peelfinely chopped | 50g |
| strong black tea, orange juice, or dark rumwarm | 75ml |
| unsalted buttersoftened | 250g |
| extra butter for the mould | as needed |
| fine caster sugar or witte basterdsuiker | 225g |
| vanilla sugar or vanilla extract | 8g or 1 teaspoon |
| lemon zestfinely grated | zest of 1 lemon |
| large eggsroom temperature | 5 |
| plain flourfor batter, fruit, and mould | 300g, plus extra |
| baking powder | 10g |
| fine salt | 3g |
| ground cinnamon | 1 teaspoon |
| freshly grated nutmeg | 1/4 teaspoon |
| ground mace | 1/4 teaspoon |
| whole milkroom temperature | 75ml |
| blanched almondschopped | 50g |
| fine dry breadcrumbs or flourfor dusting the mould | as needed |
| powdered sugarfor finishing | 30g |
Equipment Needed
- •24cm fluted tulband mould, about 2.4 liters or 10 cups
- •Stand mixer or hand mixer
- •Cooling rack
- •Fine sieve for powdered sugar
Instructions
- 1
Soak the fruit
Put the raisins, currants, and succade in a bowl and pour over the warm tea, orange juice, or rum. Leave for 30 minutes, then drain well and pat dry. Toss the fruit with 1 tablespoon of flour. This little coat is not decoration; it keeps the fruit from sinking to the bottom like bad news.
- 2
Prepare the mould
Heat the oven to 170C, or 160C fan. Butter every ridge of a 24cm fluted tulband mould, then dust it with fine dry breadcrumbs or flour and tap out the excess. Be fussy here. A tulband that refuses to leave its mould is still cake, yes, but it has lost the argument.
Breadcrumbs give a slightly sturdier release than flour and are very Dutch in spirit: practical, thrifty, and invisible once the cake is turned out. - 3
Cream the butter
Beat the softened butter, sugar, vanilla sugar or extract, and lemon zest for 4 to 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. This is where the cake gets its lift. Baking powder helps, but the first air goes in now, under your spoon or mixer.
- 4
Add the eggs
Beat in the eggs one at a time, letting each disappear before the next goes in. If the mixture looks curdled, add a spoonful of the measured flour and carry on. The batter is not ruined; it is only complaining.
- 5
Fold the batter
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace. Fold this into the butter mixture in two additions, alternating with the milk. Stop as soon as the batter is smooth and thick. Overmixing makes a proud cake heavy, and Christmas already has enough weight.
- 6
Add fruit
Fold in the floured dried fruit and chopped almonds with a broad spatula. Work gently from the bottom of the bowl so the fruit is evenly scattered. You want every slice to show its little cargo of raisins, citrus peel, and almond.
- 7
Fill and bake
Spoon the batter into the prepared mould and smooth the top. Tap the mould once on the counter to settle the batter into the ridges. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until the cake is deep golden, pulling slightly from the sides, and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.
If the top darkens before the middle is done, lay a loose sheet of foil over it for the final 15 minutes. Loose is the word; the cake still needs room to breathe. - 8
Turn it out
Let the cake rest in the mould for 15 minutes, no longer. Set a rack over the top, turn both together, and lift the mould away with confidence. If a ridge clings, wait a breath and loosen it carefully with a thin wooden skewer.
- 9
Finish with sugar
Let the tulband cool completely before dusting it generously with powdered sugar. Dust too early and the sugar melts into the crust; wait, and it settles into the flutes like the first proper snow. Serve in thick slices with coffee.
Chef Tips
- •Use room-temperature butter, eggs, and milk. Cold eggs make the butter seize, and then you spend five minutes repairing what one hour on the counter would have prevented.
- •Succade, candied citron, is the old Dutch choice, with a firmer, more perfumed bite than ordinary peel. If you dislike it, use good candied orange peel, but do not leave out the citrus entirely; the cake needs that bitter brightness against the butter.
- •Do not dust the cake until it is cool. Poedersuiker, powdered sugar, is the whole Christmas costume here, and warmth makes it vanish.
- •A tulband mould with sharp ridges gives the prettiest cake, but beauty follows release. Butter it carefully, dust it well, and the mould will behave.
Advance Preparation
- •The dried fruit can be soaked, drained, and refrigerated up to 24 hours ahead.
- •The cake is excellent baked one day ahead; wrap it once completely cool and dust with powdered sugar shortly before serving.
- •Keeps 3 to 4 days well wrapped at room temperature. It also freezes well without the powdered sugar finish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 120g)
Calories
460 calories
Total Fat
22 g
Saturated Fat
12 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
9 g
Cholesterol
125 mg
Sodium
230 mg
Total Carbohydrates
62 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
38 g
Protein
7 g
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