Homemade Cooking Recipes and Cooking Tips

fruit cake

Showing: 1 - 2 of 2 Articles
Rich plum cake
Cake

Rich Plum Cake

Leave a Comment on Rich Plum Cake
Rich plum cake

Plum cakes or Christmas fruit cakes are too moist and delicious. The filling of dry fruits with the cake batter makes it more rich and fruity.

Ingredients :

1. For Caramel syrup

  • Sugar – 3/4 cup
  • Hot water – 1/2 cup

2. Dry fruits soaked

  • 3 colour tutti fruiti – 1/2 cup
  • Cherry – 1/4 cup
  • Black raisins – 1/4 cup
  • Golden raisin – 1/4 cup
  • Dates chopped – 1/4 cup
  • Cashewnuts chopped – 1/4 cup
  • Almonds chopped – 1/4 cup

Total dry fruit mix = 2 cups

3. Dry ingredients

  • All purpose flour – 1.5 cups + 2 tablespoon
  • Baking powder – 1 teaspoon
  • Baking soda – 1/4 teaspoon
  • Cinnamon powder – 1/2 teaspoon
  • Dry ginger powder – 1/2 teaspoon
  • Salt – 1/4 teaspoon

4. Wet ingredients

  • Egg – 3
  • Melted butter – 3/4 cup
  • Vanilla essence – 1 teaspoon

Method of preparation :

1. Preparing caramel

  • Add 3/4 cup of sugar to a pan and switch on the flame
  • When the sugar starts to melt, prepare hot 1/2 cup of hot water. Make sure the flame is between medium to low.
  • After sometime we can see that the sugar has melted completely and became golden brown in colour.
  • By this time add hot water slowly and carefully.
  • Boil the caramel for 5 minutes and then switch off the flame.
  • Allow the caramel to cool down.

2. Preparing dry fruit mix

  • If you have pre- soaked fruit mixture in rum or wine, you can take two cups of that dry fruits mix.
  • Else, soak the freshly chopped dry fruits in a small portion of caramel kept aside.

4. Mixing of dry ingredients

  • To a siever purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon powder, dry ginger powder and salt
  • Sieve this dry ingredients for 2 to 3 times and keep it aside.

3. Preparing wet ingredients

  • In a large mixing bowl, add 3 eggs.
  • Using egg beater or spatula, mix them till fluffy.
  • Add vanilla essence and mix well
  • Then powdered sugar and mix again
  • Now add melted butter and mix everything properly.
  • Add the prepared caramel syrup and mix gently.

4. Preparation of Plum cake

  • Mix the dry fruits with 3 tablespoon of all purpose flour, so that they don’t get settled at the bottom of the cake.
  • Now to the wet ingredients mix, add the flour mix which is kept aside.
  • Mix the dry ingredients using spoon or spatula. Do not use beater.
  • Add the dry fruit mix to the batter and mix well everything.
  • Line 7 inch cake tin with butter paper.
  • Add batter to the cake tin.
  • Preheat the oven for 10 minutes at 170°C
  • Bake the cake for 55 to 60 minutes or until the tooth pick comes out clean, when checked in the center portion of cake.
  • Allow the cake to cool and then cut it into slices.
Plum Cake Dry Fruit Soaking
Jams and Preserves

Soaking fruits for Christmas cake

1 Comment on Soaking fruits for Christmas cake
Fruit soaking for cake

Christmas bells are ringing and the most wonderful time of the year has come. The spirit of Christmas has made me to try out new recipes in cakes. So,I started this month with the fruit soaking for Christmas fruit cakes. Traditional plum cake or Christmas fruit cake requires soaking of dried fruits and nuts for weeks or months in advance. If you like rich and moist fruit cake, then this recipe is for you.

This fruit mix is super easy to prepare. The only thing is you have to shop different kinds of dried fruits and nuts and then chop it into very fine pieces. Christmas cakes are very common across the globe but the timeline for fruit soaking are different in different places. Some may soak before one year, 3 months, 1 month, 2 weeks, and even 2 days in advance.

The most commonly used dried fruits are raisins, prunes, cranberries, dried cherries, candied oranges, candied ginger, dried pineapple, dried apricots, etc. You can choose them as per the market availability and your taste. Almonds, Walnuts, and cashew nuts can also be used along with these dried fruits.

Soaking can be done in rum, wine or juices. The commonly used juices for soaking are grape juice, orange juice and apple juice. But, I always do soaking in homemade wines. If you do not have wine at home, you can go for these bottle juices available in shops. The only thing to keep in mind is that you have to refrigerate the dry fruits if they are soaked in juice. If soaked in wine or rum, they can be stored outside in a cool place.

Even though it is a very simple and easy process, the whole process which starts from shopping of dry fruits to cutting them and finally soaking them takes me to a Christmas mood and it is simply amazing. Wishing you all a happy and blessed season !

Ingredients:

  • Black raisins – 250 g
  • Golden raisins – 250 g
  • Dates chopped – 300 g
  • Tutti-frutti red,green and yellow- 250 g, each
  • Chopped cashew nuts – 200 g
  • Home made grape wine – 2 cups

Method of soaking :

  • Clean dry fruits as required, remove the stems from raisins if there are any. Also, use seedless raisins. Deseed the dates and chop them into fine pieces
  • Add all the chopped dry fruits and cashewnuts to a large glass jar or ceramic jar. Do not use any metal containers
  • Pour the home made wine to the mixture and mix them properly using a spatula
  • Cover with a lid
  • Store in a cool dark place of your kitchen
  • Stir the fruits daily so that they get evenly coated with wine
  • Then, you can use it as per your cake recipe requirements.

Notes :

  • If you want a crunchy nut in cake, avoid soaking of nuts. You can add them directly during cake baking.
  • Some recipe calls for the addition of spices powder (cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg) also to this fruit jar. But I add this spice powder during baking, based on the recipe requirements.
  • The quantity of alcohol or juice should be just enough to immerse the dry fruits.
%d bloggers like this: