Traditional Christmas Fruit cake ( without alcohol )

Traditional Christmas Fruit cake ( without alcohol )

Traditional Christmas fruit cake is a cake made with chopped dried nuts and dried and candied fruits soaked in spirits/ alchohol, spiced with various spices, solid and little chewy in texture unlike other butter or pound cake , that has long shelf life and tastes better by the time . That is, it will taste better the next days other than the day it is made !!!!
Christmas Fruit cake is a delicate cake and needs special treatment in making it . I will discuss the important notes at the end of the recipe . Please don’t skip out . Alcohol being prohibited in my religion , substituted it with fruit juice and ingredients like treacle and cake spice are home made, which you can easily get in your pantry . I made my cake spice and the treacle with little improvisation that made the cake taste even better !!!!

The batter for this type of cake is not like regular cake batter . You can’t pour the batter . You have to spoon the batter in the cake pan . The cake is solid in texture and if your batter is not heavy for the dried fruits , they will sink on the bottom .

The temperature being another important factor . You have to bake the cake at low temperature like 325 FH so that the fruits inside should not taste bitter . I am going to discus all these important matters at the end of the recipe ! Please carefully go through those notes . 🙂

Ingredients:

*I took the cup for measurement , where 1 cup= 250 ml *

3 Eggs, room temperature
3/4th cup softened butter
3/4 th cup of brown sugar ( you can substitute it with ground jaggery/ akher gur)
2 tbl spoon of treacle ( see the recipe below)
1 tbl spoon of Golden syrup/ corn syrup or substitute can be honey
1 and half cup of all purpose flour + 2 tbl spoon
2 tbl spoon of powder milk
1 tbl spoon of lemon/ orange zest
Baking powder half a teaspoon
Baking soda 1/4 th teaspoon
Cake spice 1 teaspoon ( see the recipe below)
Ginger Powder 1/4 th teaspoon ( optional)
Vanilla essence half a teaspoon
Dried nuts ( almond , pistachio , walnuts ) , candied fruits ( pineapple, cherries), black currant , raisins= 1 cup
Orange juice to soak the dried fruits

Cake Spice :

Nutmeg powder 1/4 th teaspoon
Clove Powder 1/4 th teaspoon
Cinnamon powder 1/4 th teaspoon
Green cardamom powder 1/4 th tea spoon

Mix them together and your cake spice is ready . 🙂

Treacle/ caramel syrup:

2 tbl spoon of sugar
2 tbl spoon + 1/4 th cup of water
1 tbl spoon molasses/ date palm molasses ( khejur gur)

Make caramel with 2 tbl spoon of sugar and 2 tbl spoon of water . When the sugar gets dark red ,add 1/4 th cup pf water .. stir and add 1 tbl spoon of molasses , cook until gets little thick . Cool it down . That’s my improvisation and trust me it tastes better!!!!! But before you use in the cake batter cool it down .

Procedure:

1. Soak the dried fruits , raisins , cherries and black currants in orange juice for at least 3/ 4 hours . Drain out the juice .

2. Pre-heat the oven to 325 FH for at least 20 minutes . Grease and line the cake pan with parchment or butter paper .

3. Sieve the flour along with baking powder, baking soda and mix the dry ingredients like orange zest , cake spice and powder milk with it . Take one fourth cup of flour from it and coat the dried nuts and candied and dried fruits with it . Now mix them with the remaining flour . It will help the fruits not to sink on the bottom .

4. Beat brown sugar and butter together until light , creamy and fluffy . Add egg , one at a time and beat well . Now add the treacle and beat . Add the vanilla essence .

5. Add flour mixture to the egg mixture , in three batches , don’t add the flour all at a time . Fold it with light hand in clock wise motion with a spatula . Over mixing can ruin your cake . Add the honey or golden syrup in it . The batter will not be of pouring consistency . Unlike other cake batter , this batter is heavy . You have to spoon the batter in the cake pan . It will look like this ;

6. Spoon the batter in the cake pan and bake immediately at 325 fh in a preheated oven for 1 hour . After 1 hour check inserting the knife . If the center doesn’t come clean bake for another 20 minutes or depending how clean the knife came . It may take little longer . Sometimes it takes me like 1 and half hour and sometimes it gets done in 1 hour and some extra few minutes . But careful don’t over bake the cake !!!!!!

Notes:

1. The batter for this type of cake is not like regular cake batter . You can’t pour the batter . You have to spoon the batter in the cake pan . The cake is solid in texture and if your batter is not heavy for the dried fruits , they will sink on the bottom .

2. The temperature being another important factor . You have to bake the cake at low temperature like 325 FH so that the fruits inside should not taste bitter .

3. While baking , it may happen that the top of the cake gets colored soon . In that case cover the pan with an aluminium foil to prevent burning on the top . But don’t do so until the rising is complete .