November 10th 2014
I will update this page as and when i prepare for the cake.
Christmas cake….Aahh
This is literally the only cake i love and eat. This Dark, Boozy cake filled with Rum soaked dry fruits, candied orange peel, caramel needs preparation well in advance and has to be made a week before Christmas..
Stage 1
Ingredients
1/2 cup – Raisins
1/2 cup – Cashew chopped
1/2 cup – Almonds chopped
1/2 cup – Dried Cherries
1/4 cup – Pistachios chopped
1/4 cup – Walnuts
1/4 cup – Dry figs chopped
200 ml – Rum ( Any dark rum will do.I have used Old Monk)
1 no – Vanilla Pod ( optional )
Makes 1no. 9″ cake.
Method
In a big clean bottle, take all the dry fruits, vanilla pod. Bottle has to be big enough to hold double the quantity of dry fruits, as the dry fruits will bloat up.
Pour over the rum. The rum should cover the dry fruits completely.
Keep the bottle in a dark and cool place (in a cupboard not fridge ). Shake it once a day.
Look at the bloating raisins and start the count down 🙂
You will see that the nuts soak the rum and only the bottom part of the dry fruits will be soaking. So shaking the mixture is important.
For people who do not want to use alcohol skip this step. Start from stage 2, candied oranges. We will handle the dry fruits later. But keep the dry fruits ready. U will need it a day before we make the cake.
3rd Day
The nuts are now plump and drunk..
They have soaked up the rum and now the bottle is housefull 🙂 that’s the reason I mentioned earlier to use a bigger bottel…
Shake and shuffle it once a day this week and from next week, shuffling alternate days till we bake the cake, should be good.
Lets make some Candied Orange Peel tomorrow. Keep 4 oranges and caster sugar ready.. See ya!!!!
November 12th 2014
Stage 2:
Candied oranges are a very important part of the fruit cake. Juliene it, chop it finely or grate it using a big grater according to your liking. I love big chunks of candied oranges in my cake and hence I juliened them so that i can chop them before adding them to the cake.
Follow the below link for the process
CANdied orange peel
I will now update the page on Dec 1st with the list of ingredients. So that we can bake the cake on Dec 5th. See you then and do not forget to shuffle the dry fruits.
Ingredients for the Cake
100 gms – Unsalted Butter
125 gms – Clarified butter /Ghee
300 gms -Powdered Sugar /Castor sugar
600 gms – Soaked dry fruits
4 nos – Egg yolks
1 tsp – Vanilla essence
3 tbsp – Candied orange peel
1/4 cup – Caramel syrup
1 no – Orange
250 gms – All purpose flour/ Maida
1/2 tsp – Baking powder
1/4 tsp – Baking soda
2 tsp – All spice powder (1 tsp cinnamon powder+1/4 tsp nutmeg powder+1/4 tsp clove powder + 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder)
1/4 cup – Milk
4 nos – Egg white
3 tbsp – Limejuice
4 tbsp – Granulated Sugar
*2 extra oranges if you are doing a non alcoholic version.
Keep the ingredients ready guys, lets bake on 5th..
December 2nd 2014
STAGE 3
Caramel Sugar Syrup
Make Caramel Sugar Syrup whenever you have some time to make your life a little easier the day of baking
Follow the below link for the process
CARamel Sugar Syrup
December 4th 2014
STAGE 4
Baking the cake
Baking the cake a month or couple in advance enriches its taste. Feeding it with rum till Xmas makes it boozy, rich, dark. And the whole process takes it to a different level.
Get all your ingredients ready.Make sure all the ingredients are in room temperature.
Preparation
.Line a 9″ tin with grease proof paper.
.Drain the soaked dry fruits . Set the soaked rum back in the bottle for later use. Take these dry fruits and the juice of the orange in a sauce pan and cover it snd cook it till all the juice is absorbed.
(*People who did not want soak the dry fruits in rum. Soak the dry fruits in the orange juice (3 nos) overnight or for as a couple of hours atleast. And then cook it in the same juice till all the juices are absorbed. And for people who did not soak the dry fruits for some reason and do not mind using rum, soak and boil in half and half rum and orange juice)
Spread the cooked dry fruits on a plate and let it cool completely.
.Sieve together all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and all spice powder. Toss the steamed cooled mixed fruits in the flour-mix well in a large bowl, so that the fruit is completely coated. Keep aside. (Tossing fruits in flour is to avoid fruits falling to the bottom of the cake during baking time)
Method
Pre heat the oven to 160°C
Cream butter, ghee and sugar; add egg yolks one by one and beat in. Then add vanilla essence, chopped orange peels, caramel syrup and beat well. Till the mixture looks creamy and silky.
Add flour-fruits mix slowly alternating with milk to the cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour-fruit mixture. Stir well with spatula to blend uniformly.
Beat egg whites till stiff add 4 tbsp sugar and limejuice and beat again. Fold in egg whites in to the cake mixture.
Pour cake batter in to prepared pan. Smoothen it well (If you like an uneven top, like how you see in my cake, save a small handful of floured dry fruits and sprinkle it on top or You can arrange some blanched and peeled almonds in a pattern or you can sprinkle some dried cherries on top )
Bake for about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4hours or till a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Keep checking after an hour as it will vary from oven to oven.
Remove it and let it sit in the cake tin. When the cake is still warm pour 1/8th cup rum or brandy over the cake and remove from the tin and cool it over a cooling rack.
STAGE 5
Soaking and Storing
Once the cake completely, when i say completely, it means completely ( i know some of my friends will be in a hurry ?) sprinkle some more alcohol cover it tightly with clingfilm and wrap it up in aluminium foil or brown paper and store it in a dark cool place. Feed the cake some alcohol once in 4 days or a week.
If you do not want to keep it out, refrigerate it, just clingfilmed and thaw it a day before christmas.
I was left with some extra soaked fruits. So made two.. More the better. That one will be for new years. Yes you can refrigerate this cake for atleast 3 months 🙂
I might just dust it with icing sugar the day i want to serve. But you could do cinnamon flavoured, or candied orange flavoured buttercream icing, whipped icing over the cake or you could brush some orange jam over the cake too..
For Buttercream icing
Ingredients
3 cups – Icing sugar
1 cup – Butter, room temperature
1 tsp – cinnamon powder or all spice powder or finely chopped candied oranges
1 to 2 tbsp – whipping cream
Method
In a bowl mix together sugar and butter using a hand blender. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.
Add the flavour of your choice and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.
Spread over the cake.
I hope your cakes turn out good. And promise me you will write back here with how it went. I would love to hear from you. It was fun baking with guys…?
I will also posting recipes for Eggnog, Ginger bread cookies , Christmas pudding, Brandy cream and gingerbread for Christmas.
Have a great Christmas? and a New Year !!!!
HI. I have followed the steps for soaking the dry fruits and the candied orange peals.. It came exactly the same way. Have a quick doubt. I have seen other recipes where the caramel is also added along with the rum while soaking the dry fruits. Am i missing something or do we add it in the later part of the prep ? Awaiting your response. Thanks, MOnica
Hey Monica, that must be another way of making the fruit cake. There are lots of variations in this recipe. I will be adding it while making the cake 🙂
3 tbsp – Candied orange peel
Do you mean powder orange peel and then use 3 tbsp of it? or how you going to major 3 tbsp orange peel? Thanks.
Hey Vinit, i chop it fine so that we get bits in the cake. And measure those bits. You can add more or less depending on your liking..
Thanks 🙂
Hi , i too have followed the step for soaking dry fruits and candied orange peals.. can u please let us know weather to use salted or unsalted butter? Or do u have substitute to egg ? Or this cake can be done in OTG?
Hey Shwetha, nice to know you are making the cake too..:)
It is unsalted butter that is used in cakes unless it is mentioned otherwise.
I do not have a tried and tested eggless recipe of this cake. But you will get a lots of recipes online..
It can be done in OTG.
Hey Madhuri,
At the outset i must say, you are great in baking and food presentation. Your blog can inspire a non baker like me :). Now with much gusto i need few info from you –
1- which stand mixer/hand mixer do you use- kitchenaid?
2-Do you use a convection microwave or a OTG ? Please share the name of the model/brand?
Keep up the good work.
Hey Nikita, thank you so much. If i have inspired you to bake then the intention and goal of blogging has been achieved 🙂
I use Kenstar hand mixer and kitchenaid stand mixer.
I use a samsung convection oven.
Hi Madhuri … Can you tell me what alternate to eggs I can use for your recipe please …
Vaishali, i dont have a tried and tested eggless recipe 🙁 sorry!!!
Hey loved the recipe…but I am new to baking stuff what extra can u tell me that will make it a bit easy and can u tell me what can i use instead of eggs
Antra, sorry dear… I have no substitute for eggs 🙁 as i havent tried any.. But you will find a lot of eggless recipes online 🙂
Wow cake does look yum, What about storage of cake? Since our day temperatures are about 30 Celsius, will it be ok to store in kitchen cabinet?How much alcohol to feed cake for ever 4-5 days?
Thanks.
Hey thank you Vinit. I would suggest you refrigerate it, wrapped in clingfilm. Feed 1/8th cup everytime..
Hie, Can we use honey instead of the caramel sugar syrup?
Thanks
No, honey doesnt give the bitter and dark taste like how a caramel sauce will give.
Thank you so much for this step by step, one awesome series of pictures after another.
will be baking my cake on Monday, looking at some eggless versions…any suggestions, coz I want all this effort to bear the desired results.
Also I had put the candied orange peels along with the dryfruits, do you think it might make it unbearbly bitter?
Best wishes and season’s cheer for you and your loved ones.
Neeta
Hey Madhuri ,
I have baked the cake and it turned out wow.. I baked it in 2 portions. Because we couldn’t wait till Christmas to taste it.. so kept one for christmas and tasted the other.. Trust me.. its the first ever best cake that I have ever baked and my family is still praising me for it and wanting me to bake it again.. By the way can I keep the cake in a air tight container in a dark place till Christmas and feed rum every 4 days ? Pl help..
Thanks ,
Monica
Hey Monica, so happy to know that the cake turned out good ?
You can keep it in a real air tight box and keep it in cool dry place. But make sure the place is completely cool out of any moisture, humidity etc. May be under the bed, if you dont have heaters.
Hi,
I had more queries 😀
1. You have listed lime juice but have not used it in recipe, why it is required? and where u’d use it?
2. Dry fruits are in rum, so do I still need to cook them along with orange juice (I believe squeezed out juice of 1 orange)?
3. How much caramel sugar syrup to use? Or use all made as per your caramel sugar syrup recipe?
4. any preference to ghee? Cow’s/buffalo’s milk ghee?
Thanks.
So finally gathered up courage to make the eggless version of this boozy cake, surfed many sites, researched and to say that it confused me further wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Substitutes from banana to mashed potato to pumpkin to add to the starchiness…one look at the soaked fruits/ dryfruits and I concluded couldn’t wait anymore so though risky it was, decided to take a plunge…. Added yoghurt and warm milk and tweaked the quantities of baking soda and baking powder from your list (eggs and egg whites were out) ….. 90 minutes of a pounding heart and then the sight of the perfectly baked deliciousness! It’s cooling right now but if the scrapes are anything to go by….this has turned out to be the best boozy cake I’ve had!
Thank you so so much Madhuri 🙂
May the season’s cheer sprinkle joy in your everyday life.
Warmest
Neeta
🙂
So finally gathered up courage to make the eggless version of this boozy cake, surfed many sites, researched and to say that it confused me further wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Substitutes from banana to mashed potato to pumpkin to add to the starchiness…one look at the soaked fruits/ dryfruits and I concluded couldn’t wait anymore so though risky it was, decided to take a plunge…. Added yoghurt and warm milk and tweaked the quantities of baking soda and baking powder from your list (eggs and egg whites were out) ….. 90 minutes of a pounding heart and then the sight of the perfectly baked deliciousness! It’s cooling right now but if the scrapes are anything to go by….this has turned out to be the best boozy cake I’ve had!
Thank you so so much Madhuri 🙂
May the season’s cheer sprinkle joy in your everyday life.
Warmest
Neeta
🙂
Hey Neeta, all credit goes to you for experimenting, for taking risk and for the hard work.
It will be wrong on my part to take any credit here 🙂
But i am happy to know that it went well…
Hi Madhuri… My nuts are soaking in Rum 🙂
Just wanted to check, can I replace ghee with equal quantity of butter in this ?
Sailaja
Hey Shailaja, sorry for delay in replying.
You can replace the ghee with butter.
Hi
I am going for non-alcoholic version,is it necessary to feed the cake when it cools down.
Are soaked nuts enough to make two cakes.
Thanks.
Hey smita, nuts you can divide into two parts and use. There is no hard and fast rule on the amount of dryfruits..
You can feed the cake with apple juice like Appy.
Hi…
I am making non alcoholic version… I am soaking my dry fruits in orange juice overnight… Do I put it in fridge for soaking or should I leave it out in the room temperature
Hi Madhuri, thanks for that wonderful Christmas cake recipe.. I’ve baked it and waiting till Xmas to cut it and enjoy.. The cake looks greats and we just tasted the left over on the tin and it tasted awesome?? love and hugs from me..have a blessed new year
Hey Sophia, thank you for writing. Waiting is the hardest part 🙂 but i am sure, it will be worth it…
Merry christmas and happy new year to you too 🙂
Hi,
I had baked cake 2 weeks back, and cut today. It came out good. Unfortunately dry fruits sank to bottom of cake. But cake turned out be yummy and my friends and family really loved it. I believe my cake got bit soggy, because I had fed more rum.
Thanks again for sharing recipe. Wish you and your family merry Christmas and a wonderful new year 🙂
Hey Vinit, happy to know the cake tasted good. Sad though that the dry fruits sank. I guess the coating wasnt enough ?
Anyways once it goes into the tummy, it doesnt matter how the dry fruits are distributed ? its the taste, isn’t it?? But next time make sure you coat the dry fruits well with the flour before mixing it with wet ingredients.
Happy christmas and a new year to you too ?
Hi Madhuri, I have just prepared the cake batter as per your recipe and it is in the oven now. But I guess I have done a slight glitch. After beating the egg whites, I added lime juice and sugar..but did not beat it again. I just used a spatula to mix it again and then mixed it with rest of the cake batter. I am too scared if this would affect the cake 🙁
Hey Deepika, sorry for the delay… How did the cake go??
Addition of lime juice and sugar and not mixing them shouldnt have done much harm to the cake per say..
It turned out just Awesome!!! Although it broke a little when I was trying to take it out..(I did wait for it to completely cool :P) but it tastes oh so good 😀
Thanks a ton for this recipe!