Christmas Fruit Cake

I remember my dad getting this special fruit cake from the bakeries especially during christmas and new year. They were rich cakes made with dried fruits and nuts and tasted great. I wanted to recreate the fruit cake and this is my attempt to make this delicious exotic fruit cake. It ages well and tastes even better when eaten after about a week.

I made two cakes, we enjoyed one immediately and I have stored the other to be cut on Christmas day!

You can check out last years christmas cake here.

I adopted the recipe from here and I tweaked it a little bit.

Ingredients
Flour - 2 cups
Baking soda - 1 teaspoon
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
Brown sugar - 1 3/4 cups
Nuts - 3/4 cup chopped (I used almonds, pecans and walnuts)
Dried fruits chopped and soaked in orange juice - 1 cup (I used dried apricots, dates and raisins)
Orange juice - 1 1/2 cups
Cloves - 3
Oil - 3/4 cup
Eggs - 3 large
Boiling water - 1 cup

Directions
Soak the chopped dried fruits in the orange juice. I soaked them for a day it could be stored in the refrigerator if storing for about a week.

Now starting with the cake preparation,
In a heavy bottomed vessel take the brown sugar and put it on medium heat.

After about six to seven minutes, it starts to melt and caramelize. Take care it does not burn. This should be done in low or medium heat. All the sugar melts and look like this.



Pour the boiling water slowly into this caramelized mixture. Take care because it splutters. Simmer for about 3 minutes until all the caramel dissolves and forms a thick liquid. Allow it to cool completely.

Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together. Add the oil, cooled caramel and eggs and beat together with an electric mixer or using a whisk. Slowly add the flour one cup at a time and beat until combined. Stir in the soaked fruits and nuts and stir until well combined to form the cake batter.

Preheat oven to 190C/375 F.

Pour the batter into a greased baking pan. I used a round cake pan and a loaf pan.

Bake for about 50 minutes until the cake springs back from the pan.

Cool completely on a wire rack. Slice only after it cools completely.

The cake can be allowed to age for a bout a week by wrapping it in an aluminium foil and a cling wrap. It tastes better with time. The cake also freezes well.

Sending this to the following events:
Show Me Your Cake being hosted here in Dil Se..
Desserts, Pastries and Icecreams hosted by Radhika
Cakes and Cookies hosted by Mahimaa
Its time to jingle again hosted by Priyanka

Merry Xmas!!

Sending this to bread mania