Dreamy white Christmas

"The sun is shining, the grass is green,

The orange and palm trees sway.

There's never been such a day

in Beverly Hills, L.A.

But it's December the twenty-fourth --

An interior studded with nuts, fruit, and lots of white chocolate makes this cake the perfect way to satisfy your dreams of a white Christmas. (TOM HARTE)

And I'm longing to be up North."

Nearly 75 years ago Irving Berlin wrote those words, now seldom sung, as the opening verse to what would become the most recorded song of all time: "White Christmas." It's easy to understand how Berlin, born in a town near Siberia, could feel nostalgic about a winter snowfall while staying in the warm resort town of La Quinta, California, where he wrote his blockbuster tune one December.

Even those of us in less temperate climates typically long for a white Christmas. I know I do. In my case, however, I am never disappointed. That's because, regardless of the weather, I know my Christmas will be a white one -- a white chocolate one, that is.

Now I take a back seat to nobody when it comes to my appreciation of dark chocolate, but around the holidays white chocolate seems especially festive to me. Certainly the people at Italy's Perugino chocolate company would agree.

This time of year their Baci White, a white-chocolate-covered version of their signature hazelnut-filled truffle, actually outsells the dark version.

Dried cranberries, cashews, coconut, candied pineapple, and chunks of white chocolate are the ingredients for White Christmas Cake, the perfect way to have a white Christmas regardless of the weather. (TOM HARTE)

It hasn't always been this way. As Janice Wald Henderson, an expert on the subject observes, not long ago, white chocolate was the Rodney Dangerfield of chocolate. It got no respect. Some people even questioned whether it was really chocolate at all. It was not until 2004 that the FDA finally established a standard of identity for white chocolate.

That's because white chocolate does not contain what many consider the essence of chocolate: cocoa solids, the stuff that gives dark chocolate its color and characteristic flavor. It does contain plenty of cocoa butter, if it's the genuine article, but that's not enough for some purists who contend that without the cocoa particles white chocolate is simply an impostor.

This all seems a bit, well, picky to me. And beside the point. Whether it's a pale imitation of the real thing or not, white chocolate is wonderfully rich and creamy -- often creamier than dark chocolate because of all that cocoa butter -- and a worthy ingredient for your fanciest desserts. You can incorporate it into cookies, ice creams, cakes, mousses, pies, souffles, puddings, muffins, breads, brownies, frostings and dessert sauces. I can't think of a dessert it can't star in. And it goes great with Champagne. No wonder Europeans have had no qualms about calling it real chocolate ever since it was invented in Switzerland in the 1930s.

There's just one thing you have to be careful about when using white chocolate. Make sure you get the real thing. Ironically, white chocolate isn't really white at all. It should be ivory-colored. Anything being passed off as white chocolate that is intensely white probably doesn't contain much cocoa butter, if any, and it's bound to disappoint.

But a bar or two of the authentic substance may make you think twice about going back to the dark side and fully satisfy your dreams of a white Christmas.

Containing a pound of white chocolate, this cake guarantees you'll have a white Christmas even if snow is not in the forecast. (TOM HARTE)

White (Chocolate) Christmas Cake

Studded with candied fruits, coconut, cashews and chunks of white chocolate, this cake, adapted from a recipe distributed by Oxmoor House publishing company, will insure you have a white Christmas regardless of the weather.

• 1 stick softened butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 and 2/3 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
• *½ teaspoon salt
• 16 ounces chopped white chocolate
• 2 cups coarsely chopped cashews
• 1 and *½ cups flaked coconut
• 2/3 cups chopped candied pineapple
• 1 cup dried cranberries

Cream together butter and brown sugar until thoroughly blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt and blend into butter mixture. Fold in white chocolate, cashews, coconut, candied pineapple and dried cranberries. (Mixture will be thick and chunky.) Spoon batter into greased and floured tube pan and bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 45 minutes until cake rises to stand firm and has a golden crust on top. Cool cake for 30 minutes before removing from pan.