Spicy Chocolate Garam Masala Fruit Cake … a winter warmer this holiday season
Spicy Chocolate Garam Masala Fruit Cake … my first winter fruit cake with chocolate and not the last by far! I make a fruit cake every year during the holiday season. Each year I have a special spice to flavour my cake, the garam masala.
This year there are two things different. One, I’ve added the charm of chocolate to my fruit cake, and second that the fruit were soaked exclusively in rum. More specifically soaked in Captain Morgan Rum, resulting in a drop dead addictive fruit cake! Oh, and another twist, coconut sugar. YUM!
I did a dry run with the recipe to figure if I was on track. It was amazing but maybe needed a few changes. The second time around it turned out perfect. It’s a simple recipe that has a fruit mix, and wet mix, then a dry mix. Line up the ingredients, get organised and you’ll have this baby baking in under 30 minutes.
My holiday baking through winter has increasingly been flavoured by garam masala, a spice my mother used to lace her fruit cake with year after year. It comes as a surprise to many since they associate this quintessential Indian spice with curries, kebabs and savoury food.
However, if you take a leaf out of my book, or many if you desire, you will see a splattering of recipes using this flavourful and common Indian spice blend. If the West is famous for its pumpkin pie spice, the East is known for garam masala, quite literally ‘hot spice mix‘!
Hot it is not and that is pretty much a regional thing. While it is much ‘spicier’ down south, the North Indian garam masala is gentle, flavourful and extremely pleasing. Just a sprinkle completely changes the mood of any dish, so you can imagine what it did to my cake.
One bite of the cake and you get transported to winter wonderlands where warm spices, chocolate and rum embrace you with their warmth. The flavours come together really well, and each crumb screams HOLIDAY SEASON!
To finish the cake, poke holes through it as soon as it steps out of the oven, and drizzle over the warm cake with a little more Captain Morgan Rum. Then let this beautiful, fragrant bake sit back and mature a little bit. Slice and serve once cold…
Or add another level of indulgence by drizzling over with a rum spiked chocolate ganache, top with candied orange slices and frozen berries! Dust with cocoa…
… and you have a show stopper!
ENJOY!
Spicy Chocolate Garam Masala Fruit Cake ... the right winter warmer this holiday season
Ingredients
Fruit mix
- 150 g fruit mix {raisins berries, apricots, figs, orange, ginger etc}
- 150 ml Captain Morgan Rum
- 2 tbsp garam masala powder
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
Dry Mix
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- Pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Wet mix
- 75 g clarified butter {ghee}
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp Greek yogurt
- vanilla extract
To top
- 30 ml Captain Morgan Rum
Instructions
Fruit mix
- Soak the fruit in the rum, 2 tbsp coconut sugar & garam masala for 2-3 days {or more if possible}. Check daily and top with more rum if required.
- Preheat oven to 160C. Line the bottoms and side of a 6" round tin with baking parchment.
Wet Mix
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the clarified butter/ghee and coconut sugar until light and moussey.
- Beat in eggs plus vanilla extract. Beat in the Greek yogurt.
Dry Mix
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, almond meal, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Stir together dry mix with walnuts and chocolate chips.
- Toss the fruit into the dry mix, then fold it all into the butter mix.
- Transfer to prepared tin, even out and bake for 50-60 minutes until done.
To finish
- Poke holes into the cake as soon as it comes out, and drizzle about 30ml of rum over it.
- Cool completely and rest for a day.
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.
18 Comments
Ania.
A może tak po polsku ,będzie łatwiej.
varsha
Hi ,if we skip egg will there be any difference in cake texture or taste ? And any substitute for rum ?
Deeba @ PAB
Yes, it’ll be a different recipe altogether
Anuradha Gupta
Hey!! What all garam masala you used?
Deeba @ PAB
I used a garam masala powder
Khyati
Can u please give all measurements in grams?
Deeba @ PAB
Please Google. Thank you
Aditi Ravishankar
Can i substitue coconut sugar with regular sugar? thanks in advance
Deeba @ PAB
Yes of course you can. Coconut sugar is earthier. Maybe use brown sugar?
Aditi Ravishankar
Thanks a lot! ?
Nidhi Mapuskar
Hi. The recipe looks really tempting. I have a small doubt. What is the quantity of garam masala to be added to the flour? The instructions for dry mix states to mix garam masala with flour. However, it is not listed as ingredient in list of Dry Mix. Thanks !
Deeba @ PAB
Sorry, my bad. The garam masala is in the fruit mince. I’ve corrected that step. Thank you so much.
Chandna
Is there is replacement for almond flour
Deeba @ PAB
Use plain flour instead
Lakshmi
My cake was quite gooey in the middle even after 60 minutes, had to bake this for almost 1 hour 40 mins. Is that normal?
Deeba @ PAB
Hi. No, that’s not normal. 10-15 minutes give or take is ok, but that much more. I’m not sure. Maybe it’s the tin size or oven temperature calibration. A few people have made it and it seemed ok with them
Sreeparna Samanta
Hi Deeba, this recipe sounds lovely! Planning to try it for this Christmas. Any recommendations on the garam masala brand or does any brand work?
Deeba @ PAB
Hi Sreeparna, sorry for the late revert. Any garam masala that you use at home.