BAKING

QUICK CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE…Last bastion accomplished! PHEW!!

2007/12/24 / 8 Comments
“For the spirit of Christmas fulfils the greatest hunger of mankind.”
Loring A. Schuler

IMG 0320QUICK CHRISTMAS FRUIT CAKE…got there just in the nick of time!
This is the cake that we bake every year around this time & always under pressure! My mother usually gets there only by new year, so hers’ is now more or less a ‘New Year Fruit Cake’. It’s from an old recipe of hers from a baking course she did many many moons ago when my Dad was still in the Air Force. I’ve adapted it, made a few more changes this year…& we’ll get to know how it tastes tonight. Its sitting there, smelling great, all wrapped up & maturing, under the watchful eye of our very own little red nosed reindeer! His nose actually flashes!!

collage1

Ingredients:

Mixed cut fruit – 1 kg approx. (currants,peels,crystallized ginger, tutti-frutti,cashew nuts,raisins,almonds etc)
Juice & zest of 1 orange (approx 3/4 – 1 cup; you can used a mix of juice & rum/brandy if you like)
Garam Masala – 3 tsp ( I made fresh garam masala because the flavours are much better)
Cinnamon powder – 2 tsp
Juice of 2 limes
Flour – 300 gm
Cornflour – 70 gms
Baking powder – 3 tsp

Salt – 1/2 tsp
Butter – 300 gms
Sugar – 300 gms
Caramel made out of 2 tbsp sugar
Coffee – 1 1/2 tbsp
Eggs – 6 / beaten separately
Vanilla extract/essence – 2 tsps

collagecollagecollageMethod:

  • Soak the mixed fruit in the juice/rum with the garam masala + cinnamon + zest + lime juice overnight or up to 7 days in the fridge.
  • Sift the flour + cornflour + baking powder + salt & keep aside.
  • Take the soaked fruit & toss them well with the sifted flour. (This ensures that the fruit don’t sink to the bottom of the tin while baking.)
  • Heat 2 tbsp of sugar in a pan till dark brown & caramelised. Allow to cool a bit. Top with 1/2 cup water + coffee. Let it sit for a while till it all comes together as a thick syrup.
  • Prepare 3 loaf pans, or 2 8″ square cake tins. Line & grease them.
  • Preheat oven to 150 degrees C.
  • Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Keep aside.
  • Cream butter + sugar well. Add vanilla & beat.
  • Add the beaten eggs and beat for a minute, followed by the caramel.
  • Mix in the tossed fruit in 3 goes till just mixed in. Don’t over mix.
  • Turn batter out into prepared tins & bake for approximately 1- 1 1/2 hrs on the lower rack of the oven. Cover loosely with foil if the top starts browning too soon.
  • Cool & wrap in cling wrap or foil. Keep overnight at the least before slicing.

    • collage

    Have a good holiday season. :0)

    collage

Wrapped up to go…with a card made by my daughter!

Posted by Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

You May Also Like

1 1000

Where there is travel, there HAS to be food. Sabah, Malaysia that won our heart!

2019/07/16
Oat Wheat Cheese Crackers Hummus e1424437080703

Baking | Oat & Wheat Cheese Crackers, and a quick Hummus #comfortfood #simple #savoury

2015/02/20
Crackers Dips 1 800 e1425031324304

Wholegrain Olive Oil Crackers & 3 Dips | Roasted Bell Pepper, Garlic & Walnut + Classic Garlicky Cream + Rocket Cashew Dip

2015/02/27

8 Comments

  • Anonymous

    2007/12/24 at 7:05 am Reply

    looks geat and wonderful, i can also smell cake here, ver beautiful

    i hv a doubt, for soaking can we use juice,rum, brnady or is it just juice+rum/brandy. just tell me what all combination we can soak the fruit

  • KayKat

    2007/12/24 at 10:48 am Reply

    Mmm … fruits in rum is one of my fave parts of the holiday season 🙂

    This looks delicious!

  • Ben

    2007/12/24 at 3:12 pm Reply

    Yummy, another delicious cake. Yay! And it looks really moist, just the way I like them.

    Happy Holidays from my family to yours!

  • Shilpa

    2007/12/24 at 4:08 pm Reply

    That looks great :). I too made a fruit cake today (its still baking). If it is a success, it will make it to my blog. But anyway, I am going to try this next time.

    Your baking skills are simply amazing 🙂

  • vimmi

    2007/12/24 at 6:17 pm Reply

    Cake looks great. And the other photos are good too. Enjoy it. Merry Christmas and a Happy new year

  • Padmanandhini

    2009/10/23 at 9:02 am Reply

    Hi, Ur cake looks too good. I want to try out this recipe this weekend. I am a vegetarian so can u suggest an ingredient to replace egg in this recipe. Pl suggest the one which will be available in any grocery shop in India.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear from you.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

C is for Chettinad Simply Delicious Lotus Biscoff Desserts Baking Pretty Eggless Desserts