Christmas Cake/ Plum Cake/ Fruit Cake

With Christmas coming around the corner and while everyone is getting ready with Christmas shopping, decorating homes and trees, there's more to Christmas and thats preparing the yummy goodies. One among the goodies is the Christmas cake! This is  also called plum cake or fruit cake and has been a favourite to many people all over the world.

My mom is a cake expert and during my childhood she used to bake different cakes every week. During Christmas she baked a lot of fruit cakes for family and friends. But this time her recipe is out for all my readers to enjoy during this season :)

This requires a little before-hand preparation with soaking the fruits and dates in any type of wine or grape juice or even orange juice and store in the refrigerator or cold room for a week. For my recipe, I've used home-made wine.

 Soak fruits and dates in wine for a week.

Fruits and dates after 1 week of soaking and broken cashew nuts.

Preheat oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 inch baking tray.

In a large bowl beat on high speed butter, eggs and sugar until its mixed well and it turns soft and fluffy. Takes about 5 minutes.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and all spice in another bowl.

Add half of the flour mix to the wet ingredient mix and beat until its mixed well. Then combine the rest of the flour mix and mix everything well. Add vanilla and then fold in the soaked fruits and date mixture and nuts until its all even.

                            Pour the cooled caramel and mix until its all well blended.

         Pour into the greased pan and bake at 325 degree Fahrenheit for one hour.

                                         Bake at 325 F/160C on the middle rack for 1 hr

Christmas Cake/ Plum Cake/ Fruit Cake

Author: Betsy

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins

Enjoy the season of Christmas with the famous Christmas fruit cake! My mom has been baking this cake for many years. Both enjoyed by family and friends over the years. Now its time for my readers to try this too. I had fun baking this cake. The preparation takes before-hand steps with soaking the fruits and dates for a week. And also in preparing the caramel which takes about 10 mins. But after thats done, then the rest is as simple as baking any cake. I have included the ingredients and steps for icing if you'd like to. Though I couldn't do the icing for mine this time, this icing is specifically for the fruit cake.

Ingredients

• Dry fruits - 2&1/2 cups (1 cup dates,1/2 cup raisins and 1 cup of glazed cherry, tutifruiti, orange peels etc.) Chop everything well and soak in wine or grape juice or fresh orange juice and keep refrigerated at least for a week.


• Cashew nuts - 1/2 cup chopped


• All purpose flour/maida - 2 cups


• Baking powder - 1tsp


• Salt - 1/4 tsp


• Butter -1 cup at room temperature


• Eggs - 5


• Sugar -1 cup


• Vanilla - 2 tsp


• All spice powder - 1 tsp(cinnamon,cardamum clove,nutmeg etc)


• Caramel - 1/2 cup.


• For Icing:


• Cashew - 250 grams grind and make into fine powder


• Icing sugar - 2-3 cups


• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp


• Butter essence - 1/2 tsp


• Almond essence - 1/2 tsp (if using only one essence, use 1 tsp or if using 2 essence use 1/2 tsp of each)


• Water - little

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degree fahrenheit/160 degree celsius.


2. Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan or a round pan or 2 bread loaf pans with butter.


3. Sift all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and all spice powder) in a bowl.


4. In another large bowl beat butter,eggs and sugar till soft and fluffy, and till all the eggs are beaten well.


5. Add half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredient mixture and beat.


6. Then add the remaining flour mix and continue to beat. At this time add vanilla and beat for about 2 minutes' time.


7. Now add the soaked fruits and mix followed by the nuts.


8. Pour the cooled caramel and beat until the cake mix is well blended. Pour the mixture into the greased tray and bake for an hour.


9. Please check after 45-50 minutes when a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.


10. Remove from oven let it stand for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from pan by placing on a cooling rack upside down and cool completely before icing.


11. For Preparing Caramel:


12. Prepare caramel ahead.


13. Heat a thick bottom pan on high heat and add 1/2 cup sugar and stir until sugar is completely melted and the syrup turns to dark brown.


14. At this time pour 1/2 cup of boiling water and mix and then turn the heat off. Let it cool before using.



15. For Icing:



16. Mix cashew powder and icing sugar with little water to make a dough (like chappathi dough). Roll it with a rolling pin using some icing sugar so that it will not stick.


17. Carefully take the icing and cover the cake with your hands pressing softly to the cake.


18. Use a sharp knife for cutting cake.


19. For preparing orange peels:


20. Take 1/2 of one orange peel and chop into small pieces.


21. Take 2 Tbsp of sugar and about 5 Tbsp of water.


22. Heat a small skillet on medium heat and add the sugar and water.


23. When the sugar is melted add the pieces of orange peel.


24. Keep stirring until the water is absorbed.


25. Then soak them in wine along with the rest of the fruits.

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