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.
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