Fruit Cake & Caramelised Walnut Trifles
...when xmas chocolate spice cake loaded with fruit mince and fresh, crisp, sweet walnuts from @californiawalnutsindia meet a softly whipped vanilla orange spice cream, magic happens.
Top the trifles with some more walnut halves roasted in ghee, then caramelised, and dig in! Dessert just right for this season!
Ingredients
Spicy Chocolate Garam Masala Fruit & Walnut Cake
- Spicy Chocolate Garam Masala Fruit & Walnut Cake
Fruit mix
- 150 g fruit mix {raisins berries apricots, orange, ginger etc}
- 150 ml rum
- 2 tbsp garam masala powder
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
Dry Mix
- ½ cup all purpose our
- ½ cup almond meal
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- Pinch salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- ½ cup dark chocolate chips
Wet mix
- 75 g clarified butter {ghee}
- 1 cup coconut sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Whipped vanilla orange spice cream
- 300 ml 20% cream chilled
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar
- ½ tsp garam masala
- Few drops orange extract
- ½ vanilla bean scraped
Ghee Caramelised Walnuts
- 1 cup ½walnut halves
- 1 tbsp Ghee/ clarified butter
- 2 tbsp sugar
Instructions
Fruit & Walnut Cake
- 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.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, almond meal, cocoa, garam masala, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together dry mix with walnuts and chocolate chips.
- Preheat oven to 160C. Line the bottoms and side of a 6″ round tin with baking parchment.
- 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, followed by the Greek yogurt.
- 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.
- Cool completely and rest for a day
Whipped vanilla orange spice cream
- Place all ingredients in a large bowl and whip until light.
Ghee Caramelised Walnuts
- Heat the ghee in a heavy bottom pan. Add the walnut halves and gently roast over low flame until light golden.
- Add the sugar and continue to cook unil caramelised tossing to coat the nuts.
- Immediately turn out onto a steel plate or parchment paper/silpat in a single layer, and allow to cool.
Assemble
- Crumble some moist fruit & walnut cake to line the base of the trifle glass. Top with whipped spice cream, some caramelised walnuts. Repeat. Serve immediately, or chill until ready to serve.