Christmas Fruit Cake

By Delicious Addiction on June 27, 2024

I have had so many versions of the Christmas fruit cakes by now and most of the ones that were gifted to us were rum or wine-based ones. I have never really made a boozy cake. I was soaking the dry fruits, tutti fruity in orange juice. You can soak in rum or apple juice. I will try making such a cake at home in some time. If you can allow enough time, soak your fruit in brandy a few weeks before you bake the cake. This lets the fruit soak up every last drop and gets them nice and plump.

I was always a hard-core tea cake fan and used to wonder how can somebody like plum cake/fruit cake. It was changed only a few years ago when I baked a fruit cake myself just for the heck of it and I became an instant convert at the first bite itself. But I still don't like the store-bought plum cakes. I think they are overloaded/crowded with raisins. This recipe suits me well; it has fruits but not overpowering the cake portion.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour – 200 gms
Brown Sugar – 100 gms
Sugar – 100 gms
Unsalted Butter – 200 gms
Egg – 4 no.s
Vanilla Essence – 2 tsp
Orange Juice – ½ cup (1 orange)
Raisins – 3 tsp
Tutti fruity – 3 tsp (chopped)
Cashew – 3 tsp (chopped)
Walnut – 3 tsp (chopped)
Glazed Cherry – 3 tsp (chopped)
Baking Powder – 2 tsp
Nutmeg Powder – ¼ tsp
Orange Zest – ¼ tsp

Steps:

Soaking the dry fruits:

Firstly chop all the dry fruits and take them in a bowl or a jar. Pour orange juice in the bowl or jar.
Cover and let the dry fruits soak for 12 or 24 hours.
In between stir or shake so that all the dry fruits get soaked properly.

Preparing the cake:

Prepare a square or a round cake pan. I used an 8 inches square pan.
Grease the cake pan lightly with oil. You can also line the pan with butter paper.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Sieve the flours, baking powder and the nutmeg powder.
Add butter and both brown sugar & sugar and mix well.
Add eggs and mix thoroughly.
Keep some sliced cherries for adding on top of the cake.
Mix some flour with the cherries and keep aside.
Add the soaked dry fruits and orange juice. Stir and mix uniformly.
Add the flour mixture and mix uniformly.
Add vanilla extract. Stir and mix quickly but uniformly. Pour in the cake pan.
Shake the pan lightly so that the cake is spread evenly throughout the whole pan.
Place the sliced cherries on the top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 180 degrees C for 45 minutes or more or less depending on your oven.
Either wrap the Christmas fruit cake in a cling film or store in a container.

Notes:

~ If the top of the cake browns quickly, then cover the top with butter paper or aluminium foil.

~ Instead of butter you can use oil.

~ If using orange juice than just soak for 1 day only and keep the bowl in the fridge. If kept outside even for 1 day in a warm climate like that of India, the orange juice will get spoilt.

~ The fruit cake can also be completely made with whole wheat flour or all purpose flour.

~ Instead of brown sugar regular sugar can also be used.