Christmas is about celebration, festivities and joy. The joy of life. The joy of sharing and caring.
Symbolising the birth of the Messiah.
Symbolising the birth of the Messiah.
Christmas is a potpourri of images. That grip you with nostalgia and return you to those years of innocent childhood.
Infant Jesus in his crib as the wise men bless.
The decked up Christmas tree. With the shimmering decorative hangings. And the twinkling lights.
The old mirthful Santa Claus on his reindeer driven sleigh.
The gifts in the stockings. Guaranteed to light up the faces of the little angels.
The midnight mass.
The plaintive strains of Silent Night Holy Night reverberating through the midnight tranquil.
A solemn pledge to shun violence. A pledge to be more tolerant.
The Christmas roast.
Infant Jesus in his crib as the wise men bless.
The decked up Christmas tree. With the shimmering decorative hangings. And the twinkling lights.
The old mirthful Santa Claus on his reindeer driven sleigh.
The gifts in the stockings. Guaranteed to light up the faces of the little angels.
The midnight mass.
The plaintive strains of Silent Night Holy Night reverberating through the midnight tranquil.
A solemn pledge to shun violence. A pledge to be more tolerant.
The Christmas roast.
And that sinful Christmas fruit cake.With a decadent overload of rum-soaked fruits.
Rich and moist, my Christmas fruit cake guarantees an explosion of flavours that shall return you to childhood. Enjoy !!!!
Christmas Fruit Cake | Christmas Plum Cake
No Christmas is complete without that sinful plum cake. With a decadent overload of rum-soaked fruits.
Rich and moist, my plum cake guarantees an explosion of flavours that shall return you to childhood.
Enjoy !!!!
Ingredients
Christmas Fruit Cake
- 2.5 cup flour
- 1.5 cup butter soft
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp all spice powder freshly ground
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
Soaking of Fruits
- 1 lit rum or brandy or a mixture of two
- 200 g dried prunes roughly chopped
- 200 g pitted dates roughly chopped
- 200 g sultanas or raisins roughly chopped
- 200 g dried cherries roughly chopped
- 200 dried apricots roughly chopped
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 3 tbsp orange juice
All-Spice Powder
- 1.5 tsp cinnamon freshly ground
- 1.5 tsp clove freshly ground
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg freshly grated
- 1.5 tsp ginger powder
Instructions
Soaking of Fruits
- Pour the liquor in a mixing bowl. Add 3 tsp of the all-spice powder, give it a hearty mix. Now add the orange zest and orange juice to the spiced liquor and give it another good stir.
- Soak the dry fruits in about 800 ml of the spiced liquor. Keep aside in an air-tight jar. Ideally, you would want to leave all the fruits soaked in the spiced liquor for at least 5-7 days; the longer the merrier.
- If all the liquid has been absorbed by the dry fruits, feel free to add another slug of rum every so often.
Christmas Fruit Cake
- Preheat the oven to 135C.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and 1 tsp of the all-spice powder into a bowl.
- In another large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electrical beater till light and fluffy. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and molasses. Mix well.
- Add the flour mixture to the egg batter. Fold gently to mix well.
- Now take 4 cups of the soaked dry fruits along with a bit of soaking liqueur and 2 tbsp of spiced rum and add to the batter. Give it a gentle mix.
- Line a 9 inch spring-form cake tin with parchment paper, lightly grease. Pour the batter into the cake tin, gently level the top with a spatula.
- Put the cake tin in the middle rack of the oven, bake for close to 2 hrs or till a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. If the skewer doesn't come out clean, bake for an additional 5-7 minutes more and check again.
- Remove the cake from the oven, poke holes in the cake with the skewer, spoon over 2 tbsp of your spiced rum. Cover with an aluminium foil.
- Allow the cake to cool to room temperature. Remove carefully from the spring-form tin. Peel off the baking parchment, wrap well in cling film and store in a cool, dry place for at least 24 hrs before slicing the cake.
All-Spice Powder
- Take all the ingredients listed under the All-Spice powder ingredients and mix well. Store in an air tight container.
Notes
Recipe Note: To get a rich and dark Christmas cake, you need to bake it at least 15 days prior to Christmas. And feed it a little drizzle of spiced rum every week until Christmas.
And if you are as ardent a lover of cakes loaded with fruits as I am, do give my Dundee Cake a try as well.
I love the idea of this recipe. I intend to try many of the recipes’ offers. I will write again when I have made them and let you know how I made out.
For more Birthday cakes
I tried out cake with the above recipe. The cake was very soft and tasty. Thank you.
Can it be done in oven?
Ankana, it is done in the oven only 🙂
Whenever I bake, the above surface burns but the inside remains uncooked..what could be the probable reason??
Hi Monideepa, well that depends on a number of facts. Probably you are baking at a quite high temperature than needed or the heating of your oven in not uniform. Could be any of these.
If you let me know the baking temperature and little bit more information on your baking process, it’ll be easier for me to explain. Many thanks !