Christmas fruit cake

For those who do not know it already, I enjoy baking cakes! The whole process of making and decorating a cake gets my creative juices running. And the Christmas cake is one of my favorites, the reason for which may just be the many memories, traditions and stories that the very sight of it brings back.

This cake, when made in its conventional way is a labor of love. The word labor here is intentional because the time taken to soak the ingredients, the regular check on the fruits in their syrup, the preparations done before the baking process, are all to be carefully taken care of by the mama who is going to make this baby. But worry not, for those who don’t have the time to soak the fruits months or days in advance, I have also listed a simple modification to the recipe to make a quick and easy Christmas fruit cake.

Christmas Fruit Cake

Servings: Serves 10-12

Prep time: 30 mins

Baking time: 60-90 mins

Ingredients

◻ ½ cup butter

◻ ¼ cup oil (any refined oil)

◻ ½ cup packed brown sugar

◻ 3 eggs (yolk and white separated)

◻ ½ cup caramel (½ cup sugar+1 tbsp water+¼ cup boiling water)

◻ 1 tbsp treacle/dark jaggery syrup

◻ 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour + ¼ cup almond powder (or 1 ½ cup flour in total)

◻ 1 tsp baking powder

◻ ½ tsp baking soda

◻ 1 tbsp ground spices (1 cinammon+4 cardamoms+6cloves+½nutmeg+1 tbsp sugar)

◻ 2 cups soaked dried fruits + ½ cup chopped nuts, 1 tbsp fruit marmalade

◻ ½ tsp vanilla essence + ½ tsp orange essence

◻ 1 tsp zest of orange and lemon

◻ 2 tbsp of reserved brandy/rum/orange juice

(ingredients marked in red are optional)

Preparation

1. Make the caramel syrup in advance. Take ½ cup sugar in a thick, deep saucepan with a long handle, add 1 tbsp water and allow it to caramelize slowly until it becomes dark brown, gently swirling the pan in between to allow even heating. Once dark brown, add the boiled water to the mix. Take the saucepan of the heat while adding the boiled water and stir with a wooden spoon after adding. Be extra cautious while pouring the water gently and slowly over the syrup, it will splutter. Mix and keep on heat for 5 more minutes until it simmers (I always make the caramel syrup in advance and store it in the fridge. Take it out an hour before cake prep).

2. Preheat the oven to 150℃.

3. Line the cake tin with parchment paper. It is essential to line the bottom and the sides with parchment paper as this cake takes a long time to bake and if baked without lining can lead to overbrowned sides.

4. Sieve the flour, almond powder, baking powder, baking soda and spices and keep aside.

5. Take a large bowl and add the butter and oil and beat for less than a minute. Add brown sugar and gently mix until combined. Add the egg yolks one at a time and beat until creamy (do not overmix the batter as the cake will become crumbly).

6. We can now pour in the caramel syrup and the treacle and see how the mix changes to a dark brown color. Add the flour mix and mix until combined. Add the vanilla and orange essence to mix.

7. Add marmalade, and grated orange and lemon zest to the soaked fruits and mix, take the fruits (reserving the soaking liquid) into a new bowl and sift in 2-3 tbsp of flour, toss the dried fruits in the flour until well coated (this prevents the dried fruits from sinking in).

8. Add the dried fruits to the batter and gently fold it in, use a spatula to mix from now on as the batter becomes thicker.

9. Beat the egg whites in another bowl for 5-6 minutes until we get stiff peaks. Gently fold in the egg whites into the cake batter.

10. Pour the batter into the cake tin, use a an 8 inch pan (or you can even use two 6 inches pans to get 2 cakes out of the same batter). The baking time will be longer with the bigger pan.

11. Bake for an hour to hour and half depending on your oven until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. I like to place a foil paper loosely over the top once it has become the desired brown color to prevent the top from over browning (approximately 35-40 mins into baking).

12. Once done, allow it to cool completely before taking it out of the pan and we can start feeding the cake after a day.

No-fuss Christmas Cake

This recipe is the simplest, and specially designed for those who are short of time and are trying the cake for the first time. It uses the same ingredients with just a slight variation in technique.

Ingredients

◻ ½ cup butter

◻ ½ cup brown sugar

◻ ½ cup caramel (½ cup sugar+1 tbsp water+¼ cup boiling water)

◻ ¼ cup rum/brandy/fruit juice

◻ 1 tbsp treacle/dark jaggery syrup

◻ 2 cups chopped dried fruits+ ½ cup chopped nuts

◻ 1 tbsp fruit marmalade

◻ 1 tsp zest or orange and lemon

◻ 3 eggs

◻ 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour + ¼ cup almond powder (or 1 ½ cup flour in total)

◻ 1 tsp baking powder

◻ ½ tsp baking soda

◻ 1 tbsp ground spices (1 cinammon+4 cardamoms+6cloves+½ nutmeg+1 tbsp sugar)

◻ ½ tsp vanilla essence+ ½ tsp orange essence

(ingredients marked in red are optional)

Preparation

1. Make the caramel syrup in advance. Take ½ cup sugar in a thick, deep saucepan with a long handle, add 1 tbsp water and allow it to caramelize slowly until it becomes dark brown, gently swirling the pan in between to allow even heating. Once dark brown, add the boiled water to the mix. Take the saucepan off the heat while adding the boiled water and stir with a wooden spoon after adding. Be extra cautious while pouring the water, do it gently and slowly over the syrup, it may splutter. Mix and keep on heat for 5 more minutes until it simmers (I always make the caramel syrup in advance and store it in the fridge. Take it out an hour before cake prep).

2. Take the butter, brown sugar, caramel syrup, rum/brandy/juice, treacle and 2 cups of chopped dried fruits in a thick saucepan and heat it on medium heat until the mixture starts boiling, now lower the flame and simmer for another 5 minutes. Take it off and keep aside to cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 150 ℃.

4. Line the cake tin with parchment paper. It is essential to line the bottom and the sides with parchment paper as this cake takes a long time to bake and if baked without lining can lead to overbrowned sides.

5. Sieve the flour, almond powder, baking powder, baking soda and spices into a bowl and keep aside.

6. Once the fruit mixture is cooled, pour it into a large bowl, add marmalade and grated orange and lemon zest to the fruit mixture.

7. Beat the 3 eggs until well combined. Pour into the fruit mixture and gently combine with a spatula.

8. Add the flour mix and fold until combined. Add the vanilla and orange essence to mix.

9. Pour the batter into the cake tin, you can use an 8 inch or even use two 6 inches pans to get 2 cakes out of the same batter. The baking time will be longer with the bigger pan.

10. Bake for an hour to hour and half depending on your oven settings, until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. I like to place a foil paper loosely over the top once it has become the desired brown color to prevent the top from over browning (approximately 35-40 mins into baking).

11. Once done, allow it to cool completely before taking it out of the pan and we can start feeding the cake after a day.

From the left: Brandy soaked, Orange juice soaked , and No-fuss Christmas Fruit Cake

They all tasted quite similar with, the brandy soaked fruits holding the most flavor.

Feeding the fruit cake:

This is not an essential step, though this does make the cake more moist, rich and flavorful. This term simply means that the cake must be made moist every few days or weekly with some liquid syrup (rum/brandy/wine/juice).

1. With a toothpick, make a few holes over the cake, take a tablespoon of liquid and gently pour it over the holes, allowing it to soak in, you can add anywhere between 1 – 2 tbsp each time.

2. It can be done every 5 days or weekly until Christmas.

3. The cake should be covered in baking paper and foil and kept in an airtight container.

4. For those using orange juice, it should be stored in the fridge.

5. Those who are making it a day before Christmas can apply a fresh glaze made up of 1 tbsp of any fruit marmalade mixed with 1 tbsp warm water just before serving.

P.S: The fruit cake can be made richer by adding an additional cup of dried fruits and that would increase the baking time by another 15-20 minutes. Ingredients such as brown sugar, caramel and treacle are added to give the cake a brown color along with the sweetness. They can be substituted with white sugar and jaggery as well. The fruit cake gets darker, richer, and more moist, as it is one of the only cakes that age well with time. So, don your aprons on and let the fruit cake opera begin.

A little bit of flour, a sprinkle of sugar and tons of love...