Merry Christmas to all my friends….. on this Christmas day, I am sharing the recipe for Christmas Plum Cake. It is baked after soaking dry fruits in Brandy or Rum for about 3 weeks. As an alternative, vegetarians can soak 3 cups of fruits in 1.5 cups of fresh orange juice. Leave the soaked fruits overnight at room temp. The rest of the recipe is the same.
In this recipe I have used Captain Morgan for soaking the dry fruits. After baking the cake and it cools down, I generally brush in the rest of the liquor to get that real strong liquory taste.
Let’s get started….
Ingredients
For Soaking
- 3 cups Mixed fruits like
- Dates
- Figs
- Cherries
- Ginger peel
- Orange peel
- Tutty fruity
- Black raisins
- Yellow raisins
- Almonds
- Walnuts
- Cashew nuts etc.
- 1 ½ cups Rum/Brandy
For Caramel
- ½ cup Sugar
- 1 tbsp. Water
- ½ cup Warm water
For Cake
- 2 cups Plain flour
- 1 ¼ tsp. Baking powder
- ½ tsp. Baking soda
- 1 cup + 2 tbsps. Sugar
- 200 gms. unsalted Butter at room temperature
- 4 Eggs at room temperature
- 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp. Apricot Jam
For Spice Powder
- 2 nos. Cloves
- 2 nos. Cardamom
- Cinnamon, a small piece
- Nutmeg, a small piece
Method
Soaking of Fruits
- Wash and soak all the dry fruits properly and allow it to dry up.
- Chop the dried fruits and nuts and fill in a glass jar.
- Add brandy/rum to this and keep for 3 weeks. Try to soak it for a minimum of 1 week at least, if not for 3 weeks.
- Shake the jar of soaked fruits once in a while.
Caramel Preparation
- Combine ½ cup sugar and 1 tablespoon water in a sauce pan.
- Heat it and let the sugar melt. When the colour of the melted sugar becomes dark brown, remove the pan from fire and add 1/2 cup warm water to this. You need to be very careful at this stage since the water tends to splash and cause burns.
- Bring it back to the heat and boil for 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from fire and let it cool completely.
Spice Powder
- Grind all the spices with a pinch of sugar, to a fine powder & keep aside.
Cake Preparation
- Preheat the oven at 180° C for 10-15 minutes, before baking.
- Drain the soaked fruits and keep aside. Retain 4 tablespoons from the drained liquor.
- Toss the drained fruits in 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour. This will prevent the fruits from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
- Sift the plain flour with baking powder and baking soda.
- Powder the sugar and keep aside.
- Separate the yolks and white of the eggs.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and add the softened butter to it. Beat it till it forms a smooth paste.
- Add powdered sugar to this, gradually. Beat after each addition.
- When it becomes smooth, add vanilla essence and cooled caramel, spice powder and jam. Beat again.
- Add the sifted flour in 2 batches.
- Add the drained liquor. Beat after each addition.
- Now clean the blades of the blender and wipe neatly. Not even a drop of water should be allowed while beating egg white.
- In another bowl, beat egg whites till soft peaks form.
- Fold the fluffy egg white into the batter very gently.
- Then fold in the soaked and coated fruits. Do this part very carefully, do not mix for too long, just two or three foldings are enough for the dry fruits just to disappear in the batter.
- Grease the baking dish and line with baking paper.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tins.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes or until the skewer inserted comes out clean. The baking time can vary depending on the oven and also the size of the tin used.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool.
- Delicious plum cake is ready!!