Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere is a very different experience to Christmas in colder climes. For starters, it’s summertime! But what about the food? Do people who celebrate Christmas in South America bake cakes like we do or do they adapt their baking to suit having Christmas during warmer weather? In the UK, we go heavy on fruit pies and cakes but is the same story when Christmas is in the middle of summer? Let’s find out…

Let’s start first with our ex-colonial cousins in Australia. BBQ’ing on Christmas day is a common thing to do but in terms of baking Australians will often make use of the fruit which is abundant in summer so Pavlova is a big favourite at Christmas time. This is a meringue-based cake filled with whipped cream and fresh fruit such as strawberries.

Another festive favourite in Australia during the summertime of Christmas is Lamingtons which are little sponge cakes drenched in chocolate sauce and rolled into coconut flakes. These were originally created by Lord Lamington who was Governor of Queensland but they have since become a popular Christmas treat all over the country. Moving south to New Zealand, the Kiwis also like their Pavlova but they add passionfruit and kiwifruit or even bananas instead of strawberries for an extratropical twist.

In South Africa, you will often find people firing up the ‘braai’ (this is the Afrikaans word for fire) on Christmas Day but you will also find people in Cape Town or Johannesburg baking things like melktert which is a traditional Afrikaans custard tart. This would usually be flavoured with vanilla and cinnamon, but people also like to throw in things like coconut or raisins for additional flavour.

Next, let’s head across the Atlantic to South America. A popular Christmas dessert in Chile is ‘turrón de chocolate’ which is a kind of nougat made from egg whites, sugar and cocoa powder. In Brazil, you will find cakes flavoured with coconut or even orange being popular at this time of year but the more traditional dessert here is bolo sem ovos (literally ‘eggless cake’). This might sound rather strange as cakes usually contain eggs but what actually happens in this cake is that the egg whites are separated from the yolks and beaten with sugar to create a meringue-like base.

Moving further south, we arrive in Argentina where pan dulce (sweet bread) is very popular at Christmas time. This can include things like ‘roscas’ which are rolls filled with dried fruit and dusted in sugar or ‘tortas fritas’ (fried cakes) which are essentially a doughnut. There’s also the fact that Argentinians often go to mass at midnight on Christmas Eve so things like panettone, a traditional Italian cake made of raisins, citron and orange zest and dusted with more sugar, can be found on many a festive dessert table.

And finally, we arrive at the most southern point of South America: Patagonia! Here you will find something called ‘bizcochuelo’ which is basically just a sponge cake flavoured with vanilla and orange peel. This treat also goes by the name ‘bizcocho inglés’, which is an ironic reference to its English origins.

So, there you have it! Some of the ways in which people celebrate Christmas when they are having it in warmer climes. And if you are looking for some inspiration for decorating ideas for these (or any) cakes head on over to the guys at Anges De Sucre.