 Tunis Cake (Mary Berry recipe) | |
| Type | Madeira cake |
|---|---|
| Main ingredients | Chocolate icing, marzipan |
A Tunis cake is a Madeira cake topped with a thick layer of chocolate and decorated with marzipan fruits. It is traditionally eaten at Christmas.[1]
It is thought that the origins of the cake are Edwardian.[2] The Scottish bakery Macfarlane Langs produced commercial Tunis Cakes in the 1930s, and when they merged with McVitie & Price in 1948 to form a company called United Biscuits (which still owns the McVitie's brand), the recipe passed to the new company.[3] McVitie's produced a Tunis cake until the mid 1980s.[3][2] The updated recipe used by McVitie's is said to have been created by Elizabeth Ewing of Inverness, whose husband was a baker at McVitie's. Her husband had eaten a similar cake whilst stationed in Tunisia during World War II.[4]
It is now sold seasonally by some supermarkets in the UK. The cake is usually topped with marzipan fruits.[5][6] Some recipes, such as the BBC Good Food and Mary Berry recipe, top the cake with marzipan holly leaves and berries instead of marzipan fruits.[7][5] An early recipe does not include the chocolate and marzipan topping.[8]
The port city of Tunis was known for exporting North African fruits.[5] In March 1934 the Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser printed a recipe including the North African fruits dates, figs, walnuts and prunes.[5] In 1936 Garratt's Bakers of Lichfield included honey, dates and walnuts in their recipe, plus topping the cake with chocolate icing.[5]