Christmas Fruit Cake / Plum Cake

It is that time of the Year again...Gifts, Santa, Holidays, and Fruit Cakes...Christmas time...

Fruit Cake is something I have always missed after coming to the US. Not that we don't get fruit cakes here, but not the kind that you get back in Kerala. These fruits cakes are also known as Plum Cakes. These cakes packed with dry fruits and nuts and the caramel flavor always has been one of my favorites. Last December I happened to taste the fruit cake made by one of my friends, which brought back those same old memories to my taste buds. The first thing I asked her was the recipe. She gave me 2 scanned pages of a book which I do not know who the author is, neither did she. I tried it out with some modifications last Christmas and turned out be a great success.

This year I planned ahead and soaked the dry fruits early November and made the cake after 5 weeks. So it was much more tastier. So here goes the ingredient list for the Fruit Cake/Plum Cake:

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Makes a 5 lb Cake

All purpose Flour	- 2 cups
Salted Butter	- 1 cup
Sugar	- 1/2 lb
Eggs	- 5
Pineapple Jam	- 1/2 lb (I used Kissan Jam)
Candied Peel (Tutti fruiti)	- 1/2 lb
Raisins	- 1 1/2 lb (Minced)
Cashews	- 1/2 lb (chopped)
Baking Powder	- 2 tsp (level)
Nutmeg Powder	- 1 tsp
Cinnamon & Cloves Powder	- 1 tsp
Caramel Syrup	- 3 tbsp
Orange Juice	- 3 tbsp
Vanilla Essence	- 3-5 drops
Rum	- 700 ml (optional - I used Myers's Rum)

1. Mix the minced Raisins with the Candied Peel in a storage bowl. Add Rum to this. Close the bowl. Keep this for a minimum of 3 days. I kept this for 5 weeks. Shake the bowl every other day. Again this is an optional step. You could make this cake without soaking the raisins in Rum as well.
2. Drain the rum out from the dry fruits and keep the fruits aside.
3. Separate the Egg White and Yolks. Beat the Egg yolk well.
4. Sift the Flour, Baking powder, Nutmeg powder and Cinnamon and Clove powder together.
5. Mix the drained dry fruits and chopped Cashew Nuts with the flour using a spatula and ensure that the fruits/nuts are well coated with the flour.
6. Beat the Butter and Sugar together with a blender and add the beaten Egg yolk to this. Beat the mixture until it becomes light and fluffy. If using unsalted butter, add 1/2 tsp salt.
7. Add the Caramel syrup, Jam, Orange Juice and essence to the Butter mixture and beat again until everything is mixed well.
8. Add the Butter mixture to the flour and mix well. You could use the blender.
9. Beat the Egg whites until still. There should not be any moisture in the bowl or the blender to ensure that the Egg whites would become stiff.
10. Fold in the Egg Whites to the flour mixture slowly using a spatula.
11. Pour the cake batter into a butter smeared baking pan (I used 14 x 10.5 inch) or a pan lined with parchment paper.
12. Pre-heat the oven at 325 degree and bake for around 1 hour. The time would vary depending on your oven. So keep checking.

Once the cake is out of the oven, let it cool. The cake would taste good, if you could resist the temptations and eat it the next day. This recipe would yield around 5 lbs of Fruit Cake. I am not sure whether the picture I have given here does any justice to the taste of the cake. If you like fruit cakes, this a must try.

Sending this recipe to the Cakes'n Cookies event hosted by Sara's Corner and Show me your Cake Event hosted by Dil Se.

Caramel Syrup

Caramel is a beige to dark brown confection made by heating any of a variety of sugars. It is used as a flavor in puddings and desserts, a filling in candies and chocolates, and a topping for ice cream and custards.

I made this syrup for my fruit cake. Caramel Syrup can be made in large batches and kept in the fridge. You can keep it refrigerated for more than a year.

Sugar - 10 tbsp
Water - 10 tbsp

1. Heat the sugar in a vessel in medium flame.
2. Stir in between and continue till it starts to bubble.
3. Keep in stove until it reaches the darkness you need. Ensure that it does not get burnt.
4. Add water to this boiling mixture. Ensure you keep a safe distance when you do this, as it could splash.
5. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Your Caramel is now ready. You could store it in a closed container and store in the fridge.

Potato Bhaaji

Poori used to be one of my favourites as a kid, and still too. I think most kids like poori. It is something I rarely make, coz of my lazines to knead the dough and roll it out :-). So my son is not familiar with this favourite of most kids. Now it dawned on me that I should introduce my son to this dish. 

Eventhough all I have been talking about is Poori, that is not the dish in the limelight. Its the Bhaaji that goes with Poori. Poori Bhaaji.... I am still drooling :-)



This is the list of ingredients that I used to make my version of bhaaji:

Potato                  - 3 (Medium sized - cut into cubes)
Onion                   - 1 (Big one - finely chopped)
Mustard               - 1 tsp
Chilli powder        - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder  - 1 tsp
Carrot                  - 1 (Grated)
Green Chilli          - 2 (Cut lengthwise)
Curry leaves         - 1 twig
Salt                      - to taste

1. Heat little oil in a pan and splutter the mustard and curry leaves.
2. Add the Onions and saute till transparent.
3. Add Green Chillies, Turmeric powder and chilli powder and saute for a minute.
4. Add potato, salt and grated carrot and enough water to cook.
5. Close the lid and cook until the potatoes are done.
6. Mash the potatoes and turn off the heat.

Your Bhaaji is now ready to be served with the puris.